RA  790  . W66  1916 

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Wood ,  George  R . , 

1859- 

Mental  antidotes 

for  many 

ills 

XJ  1  XT  T 


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X 


Mental  Antidotes 
for  Many  Ills 


GEORGE  R.  WOOD 


BOSTON:  THE  GORHAM  PRESS 

TORONTO:  THE  COPP  CLARK  CO.,  LIMITED 


Copyright,  1916,  by  George  R.Wood 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


The  Gorham  Press,  Boston,  U.  S.  A. 


A  FOREWORD 


In  presenting  “Mental  Antidotes  for  Many 
Ills”  we  have  endeavored  to  apply  in  a  real 
and  practical  manner  the  truths  and  principles 
of  modern  psychology  and  theology  to  indi¬ 
vidual  life  in  its  every  day  environments. 

The  only  valid  authority  in  the  universe  is 
truth.  Truth  may  be  defined  as  that  which  is 
in  harmony  with  the  will  and  character  of  God. 
Falsehood  or  error  is  that  which  falls  without 
the  circle  of  the  character,  will  and  plan  of 
God.  Truth,  thus  defined,  is  valid  and  authori¬ 
tative  in  its  application  to  daily  life,  whether 
that  truth  be  revealed  through  the  Scriptures, 
through  history  or  through  the  experiences  and 
the  laws  of  life. 

Hence,  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  volume  to 
suggest  some  of  the  practical  applications  of 
truth  in  its  relation  to  the  power  of  the  human 
mind  to  bring  into  each  life  happiness,  hope, 
poise,  health,  success  and  self-mastery.  And, 


3 


4 


Foreword 


since  these  pages  are  not  written  from  the  view¬ 
point  of  any  sect,  cult,  denomination  or  school 
of  thought,  we  trust  that  our  readers  may  be 
able  to  examine  the  principles  set  forth  with¬ 
out  bias  or  prejudice. 

That  each  reader  may  come  to  enjoy  to  the 
full  all  the  blessings  that  Right  Mental  Atti¬ 
tude  can  bring  to  him  through  the  proper  con¬ 
trol  and  direction  of  the  appetites,  desires  and 
forces  of  the  body,  is  the  sincere  wish  of  the 
author. 


George  R.  Wood. 


CONTENTS 


HAPTER 

I.  Some  Recognized  Principles  .  .  . 
Cause  and  Effect — Knowing  How 

II.  A  Fundamental  Truth . 

III.  Mental  Attitude  ojr.  Mind  Control 

The  Brain  Is  Not  the  Mind — The 
Human  Will  Is  Supreme — Thought 
Affects  the  Life — The  Mind  Can  Be 
Rightly  Directed 

IV.  The  Cause  and  Cure  of  Unhappi¬ 

ness  . 

V.  The  Remedy  for  Social  Discord  .  . 

VI.  The  Mental  Antidote  for  Forebod¬ 
ing  . 

VII.  Poise  for  the  Unbalanced  Mind 

VIII.  The  Mental  Antidote  for  Failure 
Right  Mental  Attitude — Some  Recog¬ 
nized  Facts— Right  Mental  Emphasis 
— Confidence  Can  Be  Cultivated 


PAGE 

9 

15 

18 


25 

39 

44 

5i 

59 


5 


6 


Contents 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

IX.  Mental  Attitude  and  Health  .  .  70 

Some  Recognized  Facts — All  Healing 
Is  Divine  Healing — God  Made  the 
Human  Body  to  Be  Well — God  has 
Provided  for  Recovery  from  Sickness 
— God  is  Greater  Than  Sickness 

X.  Mind  and  Mastery . 90 

How  Shall  Man  Obtain  Dominion? — 

The  Supreme  Incentive  for  Mastery 


MENTAL  ANTIDOTES  FOR  MANY 

ILLS 


MENTAL  ANTIDOTES  FOR 
MANY  ILLS 


I 

SOME  RECOGNIZED  PRINCIPLES 

For  every  poison  there  is  a  counteracting 
potion.  For  every  acid  there  is  a  neutralizing 
alkali.  In  the  material  and  physical  world,  ac¬ 
tion  and  re-action  are  equal.  The  sum  total 
of  nature  s  forces,  as  a  whole,  are  in  exact 
balance.  Without  such  a  balancing  of  nature’s 
forces,  through  the  rapid  re-adjustment  of  local 
disturbances  and  abnormal  conditions  of  heat, 

cold  and  moisture,  the  earth  would  not  be  habit¬ 
able. 

Science  and  philosophy  have  already  discov¬ 
ered  and  made  plain  the  agents  and  forces 
which  act  and  re-act  in  maintaining  balance  in 
the  material  realm.  But,  for  the  more  dis- 


9 


io  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

tressing  disturbances  and  weightier  woes,  inci¬ 
dent  to  the  unbalanced  conditions  of  the  human 
mind,  science  has  been  slower  to  seek  and  philos¬ 
ophy  tardier  to  apply  such  mental  re-agents  or 
antidotes  as  might  restore  balance,  poise  and 
peace. 

Reasoning  from  the  analogies  found  in  na¬ 
ture’s  laws  both  material  and  physical,  we  have 
grounds  for  belief  that  such  re-agents  or  anti¬ 
dotes  exist.  In  fact,  they  do  exist,  and  for  every 
discord,  physical,  mental  and  spiritual,  there 
is  an  antidote. 

CAUSE  AND  EFFECT 

We  know  that  every  effect  must  have  an  ade¬ 
quate  cause,  whether  that  effect  be  material, 
physical  or  mental.  Hence,  every  effect  for 
good  or  ill  produced  in  the  human  life  through 
the  mind  has  its  adequate  cause.  If  there  is  a 
cause  which,  acting  through  the  mind,  can  in¬ 
jure  the  health,  destroy  the  peace,  and  wreck 
the  happiness  and  success  of  that  life,  there 
must  also  be  a  cause,  which,  acting  through  the 
mind,  can  restore  the  forces  of  that  life  to  their 
normal  balance  of  health,  happiness  and  peace. 


Some  Recognized  Principles  n 

Hence,  we  are  logically  led  to  hope  and  be¬ 
lieve  that  for  every  disturbing  and  distressing 
ill  of  life  there  is  an  antidote.  And,  even 
though  the  specific  antidote  for  each  particular 
discord  of  life  may  not  as  yet  have  been  dis¬ 
covered,  such  failure  does  not  prove  that  some 
re-agent  does  not  exist,  and  should  but  speed 
the  search  for  the  discovery  of  the  true  anti¬ 
dote. 

KNOWING  HOW 

To  prevent  or  remove  the  effect,  we  must 
know  the  cause,  and  recognize  the  proper  re¬ 
agent.  The  acid  is  burning  to  the  bone.  Will 
nothing  stop  it,  will  nothing  relieve  the  pain? 
The  “Intelligent  Man”  applies  the  alkali  and 
the  pain  is  eased,  the  burning  ceases.  The 
“Ignorant  Man  ”  unacquainted  with  the  proper 
antidote,  must  continue  to  suffer,  perhaps  even 
unto  death. 

A  fierce  fire  is  raging,  soon  the  entire  build¬ 
ing  will  be  consumed.  The  experienced  fireman 
turns  on  the  water,  the  fire  ceases  to  burn,  and 
the  building  is  saved. 

If  we  but  knew  how,  we  could  successfully 
meet  and  master  all  the  ills  of  life.  Jesus  Christ 


12  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

knew  how ,  hence,  He  could  detect  and  correct 
every  human  discord.  He  could  counteract  all 
unbalanced  conditions  of  the  human  body,  mind 
and  soul.  He  could  meet  every  irritating  condi¬ 
tion  of  life  with  a  mollifying  remedy.  For 
every  poison  that  could  taint  and  infect  the 
human  life,  He  knew  and  could  apply  the  spe¬ 
cific  antidote. 

But  many  believe  and  declare  that  Christ’s 
power  was  miraculous.  We  have  no  doubt  but 
that  it  was  miraculous,  as  men  have  usually  de¬ 
fined  a  miracle.  But  we  are  often  reminded 
that  the  miracles  of  one  century  have  frequently 
become  the  commonplace  of  the  next.  A  cen¬ 
tury  ago  it  certainly  would  have  been  considered 
a  miracle  for  a  man  to  have  made  a  trip  through 
the  air  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  coast. 
To-day  such  a  feat,  remarkable  as  it  may  have 
been,  is  no  more  of  a  miracle  than  the  flying 
of  a  bird.  Neither  Wright  nor  Rogers  have 
abrogated  the  law  of  gravity;  they  simply  neu¬ 
tralized  it  by  the  introduction  of  other  agents 
and  forces. 

Thus  Jesus  Christ,  in  mastering  the  discords 
of  human  life,  never  destroyed  a  single  law  of 
nature  nor  created  a  new  one.  He  employed 


Some  Recognized  Principles  13 

only  such  forces  as  had  been  in  existence  from 
Creation.  Christ  fully  understood  the  higher 
and  divine  laws  of  action  and  re-action  in  the 
human  body,  mind  and  soul.  He  overcame  the 
discords  of  life  by  introducing  harmony.  He 
supplanted  doubt  by  implanting  faith.  He  ban¬ 
ished  despair  by  introducing  hope.  He  con¬ 
quered  hate  by  enkindling  love ;  cured  sickness 
by  installing  health;  and  destroyed  evil  by  as¬ 
piration  for  the  good. 

Hence  even  Jesus  Christ’s  miracles  of  power 
were  performed,  not  by  the  abrogation  of  law, 
but  by  the  utilization  of  higher  laws  or  forces. 
He  overcame,  not  by  destruction,  but  by  substi¬ 
tution.  Jesus  knew  how  to  apply  the  higher 
laws  of  life  to  the  body,  mind  and  soul  for 
health,  happiness,  and  spiritual  power.  He 
knew  that  the  laws  of  life  are  the  laws  of 
God,  and  He  recognized  that  the  forces  of  life 
that  make  for  health,  happiness  and  goodness 
were  more  potent  than  were  the  forces  of  evil 
to  produce  sin,  sickness  and  misery. 

The  physical,  mental  and  spiritual  ills  of  life 
may  still  be  mastered  by  the  same  attitude  of 
mind  that  Christ  had  when  here  on  earth,  name- 
ly,  by  a  recognition  that  God  is  greater  than 


14  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

sin,  sickness,  suffering,  and  even  death  itself. 
The  above  truth  can  become  a  living  reality 
only  when  each  individual  shall  appropriate  for 
himself,  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  fact 
that  God  is  greater  than  his  sin,  his  sickness, 
his  sorrows,  his  troubles,  any  of  his  troubles, 
all  of  his  troubles. 

“God  is  able  to  do  exceeding,  abundantly 
above  all  we  ask  or  think,  according  to  the 
power  that  worketh  in  us.”  Christ  declared 
that,  “According  to  your  faith,  be  it  unto  you.” 
In  other  words,  every  one  may  have  all  of  the 
blessings  of  God  and  Christ  that  he  has  the 
faith  to  take.  Now  faith  is  simply  a  Mental 
Attitude  of  confidence  toward  man,  toward 
Christ,  toward  God.  Hence,  the  modern  para¬ 
phrase  of  the  above  Scripture  passage  by  the 
Christian  psychologist  would  be,  “According  to 
your  mental  attitude  be  it  unto  you.”  Thus, 
the  ills  of  life  that  are  caused  by  wrong  mental 
attitude,  which  is  doubt ,  may  be  overcome  by 
right  mental  attitude,  which  is  faith.  Hence, 
it  is  our  purpose  to  show,  in  the  following  pages, 
that  there  are  mental  Antidotes  for  many  of 
life’s  ills. 


II 


A  FUNDAMENTAL  TRUTH 


“As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he.” 
This  is  the  statement  of  a  fundamental  truth, 
the  declaration  of  a  principle,  on  which  char¬ 
acter  is  built,  and  by  which  happiness  or  misery, 
success  or  failure  is  determined. 

Our  thoughts  make  us.  We  are  to-day  in 
character  the  sum  total  of  all  our  past  think¬ 
ing.  Our  future  thinking,  plus  what  we  now 
are,  will  make  us  what  we  are  finally  to  become. 
Since  character  is  defined  to  be  what  a  man  is, 
that  is,  the  sum  total  of  his  personality,  and 
since  man’s  thinking  makes  him  what  he  is,  it 
logically  follows  that  man’s  thinking  makes  his 
character. 

Let  us  fix  our  minds  upon  this  fundamental 
truth — Our  thoughts  make  us  what  we  are. 
Then,  our  thoughts  make  us  good,  and  our 
thoughts  make  us  bad.  Our  thoughts  make 

15 


1 6  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

* 

us  happy;  and  our  thoughts  make  us  unhappy. 
Our  thoughts  make  us  successful;  and  our 
thoughts  make  us  unsuccessful.  Our  thoughts 
inspire  us  to  love;  and  our  thoughts  stir  us  to 
hate.  Our  thoughts  inspire  us  to  hope;  and 
our  thoughts  fill  us  with  despair.  These  are 
fundamental  facts,  they  are  axiomatic  truths 
which  we  can  all  verify  in  our  own  lives  and 
experiences. 

If  our  thoughts  have  made  us  bad,  then  be 
sure  that  our  thinking  can  make  us  good.  If 
our  thoughts  have  made  us  sad,  unhappy,  then 
by  the  same  law  and  principle  our  thoughts 
can  make  us  glad  and  happy.  If  our  thoughts 
have  stirred  us  to  bitterness  and  hatred  and 
enmity,  just  as  surely  our  thoughts  can  awaken 
within  us  a  spirit  of  sweetness,  friendship  and 
love.  If  our  thoughts  have  led  us  to  fear,  fore¬ 
bodings  and  failure,  then  be  assured  that  our 
thoughts  can  inspire  us  with  courage,  confidence 
and  victory. 

In  the  light  of  this  fundamental  truth,  “As  a 
man  thinketh  in  his  heart  so  is  he,”  we  are  the 
architects  of  our  own  moods,  the  builders  of  our 
own  characters.  Our  thinking,  our  mental  atti¬ 
tude  toward  life’s  experiences,  toward  Christ 


A  Fundamental  Truth 


17 


and  God,  has  been  and  will  continue  to  be  a 
determining  factor  in  our  righteousness  or  un¬ 
righteousness,  in  our  happiness  or  unhappiness, 
in  our  success  or  failure  in  life. 


Ill 


MENTAL  ATTITUDE  OR  MIND 

CONTROL 

Since  our  thoughts  make  us  what  we  are  as 
to  character  and  disposition,  good  or  bad,  happy 
or  unhappy,  timid  or  courageous,  successful  or 
unsuccessful,  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  that 
we  control  our  thinking.  It  is  our  duty  and 
privilege  to  maintain  at  all  times  a  proper  men¬ 
tal  attitude  toward  the  fulfillment  of  life’s  pur¬ 
poses  and  pleasures.  We  should  entertain  only 
wholesome,  helpful  and  uplifting  thoughts. 
Mental  attitude,  or  mind  control,  becomes  at 
once  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  important 
problems.  In  solving  this  problem,  it  is  neces¬ 
sary  for  us  to  understand  how  the  mind  acts, 
as  only  with  such  understanding  can  we  attain 
proper  mind  control. 


18 


Mental  Attitude  or  Mind  Control  19 


THE  BRAIN  IS  NOT  THE  MIND 

1  he  brain,  spinal  cord,  and  nerve  fibers,  even 
to  the  finger  tips,  are  but  the  media  through 
which  the  mind  expresses  itself.  It  is  true, 
that  we  are  said  to  “Think  with  our  finger  tips,” 
and  we  all  know  that  in  especially  rapid  and 
skilled  operations  of  the  fingers,  as  in  type¬ 
writing,  and  piano  playing,  the  movements  are 
performed  much  more  rapidly  than  the  mind 
can  voluntarily  and  consciously  direct.  Yet  the 
brain  and  the  entire  network  of  the  nerve  fibers 
are  but  the  instruments  of  the  mind  for  the 
execution  of  its  will. 

THE  HUMAN  WILL  IS  SUPREME 

The  mind  itself  has  the  power  to  receive  or 
reject  the  thoughts  which  affect  the  life  and 
character  favorably  or  unfavorably.  Nothing 
can  enter  and  take  effective  hold  upon  the  human 
life  without  the  consent  of  the  will. 

The  will,  like  the  guard  at  the  “Draw 
Bridge”  in  the  old  feudal  days,  has  the  power 
to  admit  or  bar,  to  receive  or  reject  every 


20 


Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

thought  that  would  affect  the  life  within  favor¬ 
ably  or  unfavorably. 

God  created  man  a  free  moral  agent,  and 
hence  respects  the  personality  and  sacredness 
of  his  will.  No  influence  or  power  in  the  uni¬ 
verse,  not  even  God  himself,  can  force  either 
good  or  ill  upon  the  human  mind  without  the 
consent  of  the  will. 

When  we  more  fully  realize  this  fact,  we  will 
begin  to  repress  and  reject  all  evil,  irritating, 
distressing,  corrupting  thoughts  from  our  minds. 
We  will  refuse  absolutely  to  admit,  entertain 
or  retain  thoughts,  or  a  mental  attitude,  which 
fosters  the  ills  of  life.  We  will  instead  invite, 
encourage  and  entertain  only  such  thoughts  and 
states  of  mind  as  tend  to  benefit  and  bless. 

God  never  made  the  human  mind,  which  is 
the  earthly  reflection  of  the  soul,  to  be  at  the 
mercy  of  every  corrupting,  distressing  and  de¬ 
stroying  emotion  and  influence  that  might  pre¬ 
sent  itself.  Instead  he  has  created  within  the 
mind  itself  a  power  and  potency  which  in  co¬ 
operation  with  the  divine  mind  is  able  to  meet 
every  demand  for  self-protection  and  self-pres¬ 
ervation. 


Mental  Attitude  or  Mind  Control 


21 


THOUGHT  AFFECTS  THE  LIFE 

Every  thought  which  the  mind  registers  upon 
the  brain  and  through  the  brain  affects  the  life 
for  good  or  ill,  for  happiness  or  unhappiness, 
for  success  or  failure.  Every  thought  which 
passes  through  the  brain  helps  or  hurts  the  body, 
mind  and  soul,  and  thus  makes  for  or  against 
health,  happiness,  success,  character  and  des¬ 
tiny.  When  we  appreciate  this  fundamental 
fact  we  will  realize  the  supreme  importance  of 
mental  attitude  and  mind  control. 

THE  MIND  CAN  BE  RIGHTLY  DIRECTED 

While  we  can  not  stop  the  mind  from  think¬ 
ing  as  long  as  there  is  a  healthful  brain,  through 
which  thought  can  run,  we  can  determine  what 
the  mind  shall  think  about.  We  can  direct  our 
minds  to  the  subjects  upon  which  they  shall 
dwell. 

Mental  concentration  or  mind  control  is  a 
subject  concerning  which  practical,  modern  psy¬ 
chology  is  deeply  concerned,  but  such  concen¬ 
tration  and  control  is  a  power  which  as  yet 
but  few  possess  in  its  full  measure.  The  follow- 


22  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

ing  incident  will  illustrate  and  perhaps  illumi¬ 
nate  the  above  statement. 

In  the  days  of  Circuit  riding,  Elder  Jones 
reached  his  appointment  on  Saturday  evening, 
and  passed  the  night,  as  was  the  custom,  at  the 
home  of  his  leading  deacon.  He  provided  for 
the  comfort  of  his  riding  horse,  a  more  than 
usually  attractive  animal,  which  was  equipped 
with  a  new  bridle  and  saddle,  in  the  deacon’s 
stable. 

On  Sunday  the  Elder  preached  an  earnest  and 
impressive  sermon  on  the  importance  of  fixing 
the  mind  upon  the  higher  things  of  life.  Fol¬ 
lowing  the  services,  the  discussion  of  the  sermon 
was  continued  between  the  Elder  and  his  deacon 
at  the  dinner  table  and  the  importance  of  mental 
concentration  naturally  arose.  As  the  exchange 
of  opinion  progressed,  the  Elder  was  led  to 
feel  that  the  deacon  regarded  the  difficulty  of 
keeping  the  mind  fixed  undividedly  upon  a  single 
line  of  thought  too  lightly.  And,  having  ob¬ 
served  that  the  deacon  had  cast  a  somewhat 
longing,  if  not  covetous  eye,  upon  his  fine  rid¬ 
ing  horse,  he  was  led  to  make  the  following 
proposition:  “Deacon,  if  you  will  repeat  the 
Lord’s  prayer  through  from  beginning  to  end 


Mental  Attitude  or  Mind  Control  23 

without  permitting  your  mind  to  wander  to  any 
other  subject,  I  will  give  you  my  riding  horse, 
out  in  your  stable.” 

The  deacon,  confident  of  his  power  of  mental 
control  and  anxiously  glad  of  a  chance  on  so 
fine  an  animal,  promptly  accepted  the  Elder’s 
challenge.  “All  right,”  said  the  Elder;  “be¬ 
gin.”  The  deacon,  with  closed  eyes,  started  in. 
“Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven” — then  sud¬ 
denly  stopped  and  opened  his  eyes  and,  looking 
at  the  Elder,  said:  “Will  you  throw  in  the 
saddle  and  bridle?”  “There,”  said  the  Elder, 
you  have  lost.”  Mental  concentration  was 
not  so  easy  as  the  deacon  thought. 

Whether  easy  or  difficult,  the  mind  should 
be  properly  controlled  and  the  thought  rightly 
directed.  Most  of  our  sins,  sicknesses,  suffer¬ 
ings,  and  failures,  come  from  unwisely  and  need¬ 
lessly  dwelling  in  our  thought  upon  unworthy 
desires,  appetites,  emotions  and  ambitions;  or 
by  dwelling  upon  worthy  desires,  appetites,  emo¬ 
tions  and  ambitions,  with  improper  motives  and 
ends  in  view.  The  bulk  of  the  world’s  unhappi¬ 
ness,  which  we  all  admit  to  be  of  gigantic  pro¬ 
portions,  is  created  by  foolishly  dwelling  in 
thought  upon  the  little  annoyances  and  petty 


24  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

disappointments  of  life. 

It  becomes  extremely  important,  therefore, 
for  our  happiness,  health,  success  and  mastery 
that  we  cultivate  and  maintain  such  mental  atti¬ 
tudes  as  invite  happiness  and  dispel  misery,  pro¬ 
mote  health  and  banish  sickness,  win  success  and 
avoid  failure,  and  emphasize  the  good  to  the 
mastery  of  the  evil. 


IV 


THE  CAUSE  AND  CURE  OF  UNHAP¬ 
PINESS 

The  majority  of  us  place  more  mental  em¬ 
phasis  upon  the  things  which  we  do  not  possess 
than  we  place  upon  the  things  which  we  do 
possess.  We  permit  the  mind  to  dwell  more 
upon  the  thoughts  which  make  for  unhappiness 
than  upon  the  conditions  which  make  for  joy. 
We  think  more  upon  the  desires  and  appetites 
which  injure  the  body,  distress  the  mind  and 
mar  the  soul  than  we  do  upon  those  desires  and 
appetites  which  bear  health  to  the  body,  hap¬ 
piness  to  the  mind,  and  enrichment  to  the  soul. 
In  a  word  we  think  more  of  the  mere  enjoy¬ 
ment  of  the  appetites  and  desires  of  the  body 
than  we  do  of  the  high  purposes  and  ends  for 
which  those  appetites  and  desires  were  created. 
Thus,  we  place  more  mental  emphasis  upon 
the  causes  of  life’s  ills  than  we  do  upon 


25 


2 6  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

the  conditions  of  life’s  joys.  We  are  unhappy 
simply  because  we  lay  more  stress  upon  the 
things  which  make  for  unhappiness  than  we  do 
upon  those  conditions  which  would  bear  to  us 

joy. 

The  majority  of  people  never  have  anything 
but  trouble,  to  judge  by  their  talk.  Even  the 
newspapers  assume  that  their  readers  are  more 
interested  in  the  accidents,  calamities,  misfor¬ 
tunes  and  discords  of  life  than  they  are  in  the 
harmony,  health  and  happiness  of  society.  Hap¬ 
pily  for  the  world,  some  few  people  never  have 
any  troubles,  not  at  least  that  they  mention. 
A  certain  devout,  Christian  lady  who  was  given 
to  recounting  her  miseries  rather  than  to  count¬ 
ing  her  mercies,  inquired  of  a  friend,  who  car¬ 
ried  his  years  rather  lightly:  “How  is  it  that 
you  never  have  any  troubles?”  He  replied: 
“My  troubles  bother  me  enough  without  telling 
them  to  others.”  Her  friend  had  discovered 
the  psychological  and  practical  secret  of  happi¬ 
ness.  He  had  learned  that  every  time  one  re¬ 
peats  his  trouble  to  another  he  magnifies  it; 
and  every  time  he  goes  over  it  in  his  own  mind 
he  emphasizes  it.  ' 

It  is  true  that  there  are  folks  made  unhappy 


The  Cause  and  Cure  of  Unhappiness  27 

by  nervous  worry,  who  feel  that  they  must  tell 
their  troubles  to  some  one.  Perhaps  it  is  some 
good  housewife,  who  has  spent  a  sleepless  night 
worrying  over  some  petty  annoyance,  who  feels 
that  she  must  share  her  trouble  with  her  next- 
door  neighbor.  She  can  not  wait  until  her 
breakfast  dishes  are  “done,”  but  hurries  over 
to  tell  her  troubles.  By  the  time  she  has  re¬ 
peated  her  trouble  in  all  its  little  details,  it  has 
increased  to  twice  the  magnitude  it  was  before 
and  become  so  great  she  must  share  it  with  a 
second  neighbor,  and  then  a  third,  and  some¬ 
times  with  a  fourth,  fifth  and  even  a  sixth  neigh¬ 
bor.  When  she  finally  returns  home  just  in 
time  to  wash  the  breakfast  dishes  and  get  din¬ 
ner  for  her  husband,  she  has  had  the  privilege 
of  sharing  her  troubles  with  six  of  her  neigh¬ 
bors,  and  also  the  great  comfort  (  ?)  of  feeling 
that  her  trouble  is  half  a  dozen  times  greater 
than  when  she  left  her  home. 

But  we  all  need  sympathy?  True,  but  there 
are  but  few  people  in  position  to  give  real  sym¬ 
pathy  ,  they  all  have  troubles  of  their  own.  A 
certain  business  man  in  Chicago  had  the  follow¬ 
ing  notice  posted  in  a  conspicuous  place  in  his 
office:  “Tell  your  trouble  to  a  policeman,  I 


28  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

have  troubles  of  my  own.”  Perhaps  the  police¬ 
man  also  has  troubles  of  his  own.  Then  better 
not  tell  your  troubles  at  all  if  by  telling  you 
emphasize  them  and  keep  them  fresh  in  mind. 
Or,  better  yet,  if  you  must  tell  them,  tell  them 
to  God  and  to  Christ.  Jesus  said,  “Come  unto 
me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest.”  When  the  disciples 
of  John  the  Baptist  had  lost  their  leader 
through  Herod’s  headsman,  we  are  told  that 
“They  took  up  the  body  and  buried  it  and  went 
and  told  Jesus.” 

Jesus  Christ  is  the  great  sympathizer.  He 
himself  was  troubled  in  all  points  like  as  we 
are.  He  knows  all  about  our  troubles,  your 
troubles,  my  troubles,  any  troubles.  “He  is 
able  to  do,”  for  us  in  our  troubles,  “exceeding 
abundantly  above  all  that  we  ask  or  think.” 

We  will  need  less  sympathy,  however,  if  we 
learn  to  place  more  emphasis  upon  the  good 
things  we  have  and  think  less  about  the  little  ills 
of  life.  “As  one  thinketh  in  his  heart  so  is 
he.”  The  optimist  is  the  one  who  emphasizes 
the  things  which  make  for  success  and  happi¬ 
ness.  The  pessimist  is  the  one  who  emphasizes 
the  things  that  make  for  failure  and  unhappi- 


The  Cause  and  Cure  of  Unhappiness  29 

ness.  The  major  portion  of  this  world’s  unrest 
and  unhappiness  is  due  to  the  ignorant,  foolish, 
shortsighted,  unreasonable  and  unaccountable 
habit  that  people  have  of  emphasizing  the 
things  which  make  them  miserable,  rather  than 
those  things  which  would  give  them  joy. 

It  is  a  well-known  psychological  principle  that 
the  dwelling  continually  upon  any  one  experience 
or  emotion  of  life  unduly  magnifies  and  distorts 
it  out  of  all  due  perspective  and  proportion. 
Thus  one  little  disappointment  or  petty  annoy¬ 
ance,  if  continually  dwelt  upon,  will  take  all 
the  joy  and  happiness  out  of  the  most  highly 
favored  life.  One  small  misfortune  or  unim¬ 
portant  failure,  constantly  held  before  the  mind, 
has  rendered  many  a  life  miserable  and  filled 
at  last  an  untimely  grave. 

One  cold  November  night  a  man  slipped  away 
from  a  group  of  his  friends  who  were  gathered 
in  a  warm  and  inviting  club  house,  and  climbed 
the  railing  of  the  river  bridge  and  dropped 
thirty  feet  to  the  icy  flood  below.  A  few 
strangled  cries  for  help,  which  fell  faintly  upon 
the  ears  of  those  who  were  too  distant  to  render 
aid,  and  the  voice  was  forever  stilled  in  death. 
The  wife  had  become  a  widow’  and  the  two 


30  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 
sons  were  fatherless. 

That  man  had  the  prospect  of  many  years  of 
life  and  usefulness.  He  was  still  capable  and 
efficient  and  had  many  friends.  He  had  a  family 
to  love  and  to  live  for  and  make  happy.  Yet, 
forgetful  of  all  of  life’s  hopes,  promises,  joys 
and  duties,  and  emphasizing  for  weeks  a  single 
misfortune,  he  so  magnified  his  only  trouble  that 
he  literally  drove  himself  to  a  suicide’s  death, 
and  a  suicide’s  grave.  He  left  behind,  as  a 
heritage  to  his  wife  and  sons,  the  sad  memory 
of  his  untimely  and  unhappy  end. 

We  read  of  one  who  in  olden  times  was  most 
unhappy,  because  just  one  little  desire  of  his 
life  was  unfulfilled.  This  man  had  wealth, 
friends  and  honors  in  abundance.  To  crown 
it  all  he  was  blessed  with  a  wife  and  many  chil¬ 
dren  to  fill  his  life  with  love  and  laughter. 
Yet  we  read  that,  in  spite  of  all  these  blessings, 
he  went  home  one  day  from  his  place  of  honor 
by  the  king’s  side  and  called  his  family  and 
friends  around  him  to  tell  them  what  a  miser¬ 
ably  unhappy  man  he  was.  By  way  of  magnify¬ 
ing  his  misery  he  recounted  to  them  his  riches, 
honor,  power  and  the  number  of  his  possessions, 
attendants,  friends  and  family.  He  even  did 


The  Cause  and  Cure  of  Unhappiness  31 

not  fail  to  mention  the  great  honor  that  had 
come  to  him  that  very  day  in  the  form  of  an 
invitation  to  dine  alone  with  the  king  at  a  ban¬ 
quet,  to  be  prepared  and  served  by  the  hands 
of  the  beautiful  queen.  Yet  he  exclaims,  “All 
these  things  avail  me  nothing  as  long  as  I  see 
Mordecai,  the  Jew,  sitting  in  a  place  of  honor 
in  the  king’s  gate.” 

Haman,  according  to  his  own  statements,  had 
everything  in  the  world  his  heart  wished,  every¬ 
thing  but  one.  He  was  just  one  bow  short. 
Mordecai  refused  to  bow  to  him.  Haman  so 
emphasized  this  one  little  disappointment  to  his 
ambition  and  petty  jealousy  incident  thereto  that 
he  made  himself,  his  friends  and  his  family 
most  unhappy.  In  brooding  over  this  one  dis¬ 
appointment  in  his  life  he  went  so  far  as  to 
plot  the  destruction  of  the  entire  Jewish  race 
to  rid  himself  of  his  hated  rival.  Because  of  his 
wrong  mental  attitude  he  not  only  destroyed 
the  joy  that  might  have  been  his  but  he  paid 
the  penalty  of  his  folly  with  his  own  life  on  the 
highest  gallows  ever  erected  for  a  human  exe¬ 
cution. 

Haman  is  not  the  only  man  whom  the  records 
of  history  show  to  have  been  miserable  because 


32  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

he  emphasized  the  one  thing  in  life  which  he 
was  denied.  We  read  also  of  one,  King  Ahab, 
who  set  his  heart  upon  the  vineyard  of  Naboth. 
When  Naboth  refused  to  part  with  the  inheri¬ 
tance  from  his  father  for  money,  Ahab  went 
home  and  went  to  bed  and  turned  his  face  to  the 
wall,  and  like  a  spoiled  child  refused  to  eat. 
In  emphasizing  his  disappointment  in  not  se¬ 
curing  the  coveted  vineyard,  he  forgot  all  the 
other  blessings  of  his  kingdom,  and  refused  to 
be  comforted  even  as  the  ruler  of  Israel,  until 
his  wife,  Jezebel,  with  more  energy  than  piety, 
secured  for  him  the  coveted  vineyard  through 
the  death  plot  that  put  Naboth  out  of  the  way. 
But  both  Ahab  and  Jezebel,  like  Haman,  paid 
for  their  folly  and  wickedness  with  their  lives 
when  the  dogs  licked  their  blood  in  Samaria 
and  Jezreel. 

These  were  unhappy  simply  because  they 
foolishly  emphasized  the  one  thing  that  made 
them  unhappy  instead  of  the  many  things  which 
would  have  filled  them  with  satisfaction.  Let 
us  not  judge  them  too  harshly,  however,  lest  in 
passing  sentence  upon  them  we  condemn  our¬ 
selves.  We  have  all  been  unhappy  at  times 
because  we  placed  too  much  stress  upon  the 


The  Cause  and  Cure  of  Unhappiness  33 

thing  which  made  us  miserable.  We  have  failed 
to  enjoy  the  good  things  of  life  on  account  of 
dwelling  too  much  upon  the  bad,  the  disagree¬ 
able  and  the  unpleasant. 

Many  miss  the  joys  and  beauties  of  God’s 
glad  summer  time  because  it  is  so  “Awfully 
hot.”  The  very  same  people  overlook  the  bless¬ 
ings  of  the  bracing  and  invigorating  winter 
weather  because  it  is  “So  terribly  cold.”  Such 
folks  would  find  still  more  fault  if  it  should 
snow  in  July  and  sizzle  in  January. 

A  neighbor  was  complaining  of  too  much 
rain,  as  it  compelled  him  to  mow  his  lawn  so 
frequently.  We  suggested  that  the  oftener  it 
became  necessary  for  him  to  mow  his  lawn,  the 
larger  crop  of  hay  the  farmer  would  harvest, 
and  that  if  he  never  had  to  mow  his  lawn,  its 
beauty  would  be  lost  and  the  farmer  would  have 
no  hay.  When  we  are  depressed  and  uncomfor¬ 
table  because  of  a  series  of  rainy  days,  we 
should  ask  ourselves  what  would  become  of 
us  if  the  sun  always  shone. 

On  a  hot,  dry  evening  in  the  latter  part  of 
May  a  number  of  commercial  travelers  gath¬ 
ered  in  a  certain  hotel  in  South  Dakota  for 
supper  and  lodging.  They  were  all  somewhat 


34  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

depressed  and  discouraged.  On  comparing 
notes  they  agreed  that  it  had  been  a  poor  day 
for  business.  There  had  been  no  rain  for  six 
weeks  and  the  farmers  were  afraid  of  another 
dry  season.  Merchants  were  refusing  to  place 
orders  for  new  goods  until  rain  should  give 
promise  of  crops.  It  was  agreed  that  the  lack 
of  business  was  due  to  the  dry  weather. 

The  next  morning  when  these  same  salesmen 
came  down  to  breakfast  a  steady,  refreshing 
rain  was  falling.  One  of  the  number  at  the 
table  who  had  planned  a  trip  across  the  country 
in  an  open  buggy  to  see  a  prospective  customer 
was  cursing  the  rain.  Another  one  of  the 
travelers  present  at  the  table  quietly  remarked 
that  “the  gentleman  would  swear  worse  if  it 
never  rained.” 

It  is  easy  to  take  all  the  happiness  out  of 
any  day  and  any  season  by  emphasizing  the  tem¬ 
porarily  unpleasant  side.  Bless  you,  dear 
croaker,  it  takes  all  kinds  of  days  to  make  good 
days,  good  for  seeding,  good  for  growing,  good 
for  harvesting,  good  for  the  ice  man,  good  for 
the  coal  man,  and  good  even  for  grumblers, 
like  some  people  whom  you  and  I  know. 

We  can  all  be  happy  in  any  kind  of  weather 


The  Cause  and  Cure  of  Unhappiness  35 

or  in  any  season  of  the  year  if  we  learn  to  em¬ 
phasize  only  the  blessings  and  benefits  incident 
to  such  weather  or  season.  As  healthy  and  as 
happy  people  as  you  find  anywhere  in  the  world 
are  right  here  in  Illinois  where  it  is  so  sizzling 
hot  in  summer  and  so  dreadfully  cold  in  winter. 

It  is  the  little  inconveniences  and  petty  dis¬ 
appointments  of  life  that  bulk  larger  and  weigh 
more  in  the  scale  of  human  happiness  than  the 
richest  benefits  and  greatest  blessings.  People 
bear  the  sacrifices  of  pestilence,  famine  and  war 
with  courage  and  fortitude  but  worry  them¬ 
selves  sick  over  some  minor  disappointment  in 
connection  with  the  daily  duties  of  ordinary 
life.  I  have  known  a  mother  to  go  to  bed  at 
night  with  a  sick  headache  caused  by  worrying 
over  the  one  loaf  of  bread,  out  of  the  half  dozen 
she  was  baking,  which  came  out  of  the  oven 
slightly  burned.  She  was  unable  to  rejoice  in 
the  fact  that  five  of  the  loaves  came  out  russet 
brown  and  done  to  the  turn.  Because  one,  just 
one,  was  a  little  over  done,  her  happiness  for 
the  remainder  of  the  day  was  spoiled  as  well 
as  her  rest  for  the  night.  She  emphasized  the 
minor  failure  instead  of  the  larger  success. 

The  real  antidote  for  unhappiness  lies  in  our 


36  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

ability  to  cease  from  thinking  only  of  the  an¬ 
noyances  of  life,  and  to  refrain  from  constantly 
re-calling  to  our  minds  and  repeating  to  others 
only  our  unfortunate  experiences.  Since  the 
mind  must  and  will  think  upon  something,  let 
us  set  an  example  for  ourselves  and  others 
by  reporting  only  the  good  things,  the  happier 
circumstances  and  fortunes  of  life.  This  mental 
habit  will  direct  our  minds  to  the  things  which 
make  for  happiness  instead  of  worry  and  regret. 

A  young  mother  was  sitting  at  her  work  table 
with  a  twelve  months  old  child  in  her  arms,  try¬ 
ing  to  do  some  mending.  The  child  began  to 
cry  violently  for  the  possession  of  the  work- 
basket  near  by.  The  mother  quietly  turned  the 
child’s  attention  from  the  basket,  which  it  could 
not  have,  to  a  bunch  of  keys  which  it  could  have. 
The  child  instantly  ceased  crying  and  began  to 
enjoy  the  jingling  of  keys.  That  mother  had 
never  studied  the  psychology  of  the  class  room, 
but  she  understood  the  practical  psychology  of 
the  child  mind.  She  knew  that  the  only  way 
to  make  the  child  happy  was  to  turn  its  mind 
from  the  thing  it  wanted  and  could  not  have  to 
something  it  could  have.  We  are  all  but  chil¬ 
dren  grown  older  and  taller,  and  the  same  prin- 


The  Cause  and  Cure  of  Unhappiness  37 

ciples  of  mental  action  control  us  still.  The  only 
way  we  can  cease  from  being  unhappy  is  to 
take  the  mind  off  the  thing  that  is  making  us 
unhappy,  and  fix  it  upon  the  thing  that  will  make 
us  happy.  Let  us  count  our  mercies  instead  of 
our  miseries,  tell  our  joys  and  hopes  rather 
than  our  disappointments  and  fears.  Let  us 
learn  to  see  the  good  instead  of  the  bad  in  our¬ 
selves  and  others. 

Tradition  has  it  that  centuries  ago  a  dead 
dog  lay  in  the  streets  of  Jerusalem.  The  life¬ 
less  body  was  bedraggled,  broken  and  mangled. 
Various  passersby  remarked,  “How  ugly!” 
“How  hideous!”  “How  repulsive!”  At  last 
one  came  and,  as  he  stood  and  looked  in  pity 
and  sympathy,  he  exclaimed,  “How  beautiful 
his  teeth;  they  are  like  pearl!”  When  the 
stranger  had  passed  on  some  one  said  it  was 
Jesus.  He  could  see  beauty  even  in  a  dead 
dog.  It  would  greatly  multiply  the  happiness 
of  the  world  if  all  would  form  the  mental  habit 
of  seeing  the  beautiful  and  the  good  in  every 
person  and  in  every  thing.  Learn  to  take  pleas¬ 
ure  in  what  you  possess  instead  of  worrying 
about  what  you  would  have  but  can  not  attain. 
Make  it  a  habit  of  life  to  speak  of  the  joys 


38  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

you  have  been  permitted  to  experience  rather 
than  to  complain  about  the  disappointments  you 
have  suffered.  “According  to  your  faith  be 
it  unto  you.”  You  can  take  happiness  or  you 
can  take  unhappiness.  Your  own  mental  atti¬ 
tude  will  determine  which  shall  be  yours. 


V 


THE  REMEDY  FOR  SOCIAL  DISCORD 

One  of  the  delightful  things  of  this  life  is 
the  friendship  and  companionship  of  others. 
This  we  call  Social  Fellowship.  Some  people 
always  find  themselves  surrounded  by  scores 
of  agreeable  and  happy  people,  while  others 
scarcely  have  an  intimate  friend  in  the  world. 
Since  the  desire  for  friendship  and  social  fellow¬ 
ship  is  well-nigh  universal,  why  is  it  that  some 
folks  have  so  many  friends  and  others  are  prac¬ 
tically  left  to  themselves? 

Even  in  early  school  life  some  begin  to  feel 
themselves  neglected  and  snubbed,  and  they  lay 
the  blame  to  the  faults  or  jealousies  of  others, 
rather  than  to  any  failure  in  themselves.  As 
such  individuals  grow  older  they  find  that  the 
same  attitude  of  people  toward  them  continues. 

If  one  is  not  popular,  is  without  friends  and 
seems  to  be  shunned,  he  may  be  sure  that  there 

39 


40  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

is  a  reason  for  it,  and  that  the  reason  is  not 
always  in  the  makeup  of  the  other  people,  but 
in  his  own  character  and  spirit.  If  people  do 
not  like  us  and  find  no  bond  of  affinity  to  make 
companionship  agreeable,  there  is  a  reason  for 
it  and  that  reason  often  lies  within  ourselves. 

We  read  that  one,  Jacob,  the  father  of  twelve 
sons,  “Loved  Joseph  more  than  all  his  chil¬ 
dren.”  At  first  glance  this  might  seem  like 
an  unjust  and  unreasonable  spirit  of  partiality, 
due  to  the  fancy  of  an  aged  father,  in  his  dotage, 
for  the  son  of  his  old  age.  But  a  careful  study 
of  the  character  of  Joseph  and  the  history  of 
his  accomplishments  will  reveal  the  fact  that  if 
Jacob  loved  Joseph  more  than  all  his  children, 
there  was  a  good  reason  for  that  love.  Joseph’s 
disposition  and  character  far  excelled  that  of 
all  the  other  sons  of  Jacob. 

If  the  people  about  us  do  not  like  us  and 
are  not  friendly  to  us  in  school,  church  or  so¬ 
ciety,  let  us  be  sure  that  there  is  a  reason  for 
their  attitude.  The  explanation  is  not  far  to 
seek:  it  lies  within  ourselves  and  in  our  own 
characters.  “He  that  would  have  friends  must 
show  himself  friendly.” 

People  have  friends  because  they  emphasize 


The  Remedy  for  Social  Discord  41 

the  things  that  make  for  friendship.  Such  folks 
have  the  common  sense  and  good  taste  to  em¬ 
phasize  the  things  and  traits  upon  which  they 
and  others  agree  instead  of  those  things  about 
which  they  differ.  They  dwell  upon  those 
themes  and  thoughts  which  awaken  fellowship 
and  affinity  and  friendship. 

Fidelity  to  truth  and  principles  is  always 
commendable,  but  a  spirit  of  criticism  and  dis¬ 
agreement  over  unimportant  and  trivial  matters 
destroys  friendship.  It  is  the  “little  foxes 
that  destroy  the  vines.”  Chauncey  Depew  in 
his  prime  was  especially  fond  of  an  argument 
and  was  seldom  worsted  by  any  of  his  friends. 
We  are  told  that  on  a  certain  occasion  he  met 
a  Scotchman  of  his  acquaintance  and  they  fell 
into  a  discussion.  For  once  Depew  seemed  to 
be  getting  the  worst  of  the  exchange  of  ideas, 
which  rather  upset  and  irritated  his  usual  even 
temper.  In  order  to  make  up  for  lack  of  argu¬ 
ment,  he  retaliated  upon  his  Scotch  friend  with 
the  remark,  “No  wonder  you  Scotchmen  are  all 
dyspeptic,  you  are  so  confounded  contentious 
that  you  won’t  permit  even  your  food  to  agree 
with  you.” 

The  man  without  friends  is  the  man  who  lays 


42  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

too  much  emphasis  upon  the  things  wherein  he 
and  his  acquaintances  differ.  He  dwells  too 
much  upon  the  themes  about  which  they  dis¬ 
agree.  He  foolishly  insists  that  every  one  else 
must  see  things  just  as  he  sees  them.  He  em¬ 
phasizes  those  things  which  make  for  discord, 
instead  of  those  qualities  which  make  for  har¬ 
mony  and  affinity,  which  is  the  basis  of  all  happy 
and  lasting  friendship. 

The  growing  tendency  of  this  age  of  nervous 
stress  is  to  emphasize  the  thought  wherein  we 
differ,  and  to  dwell  upon  those  things  which  dis¬ 
please,  rather  than  upon  those  qualities  which 
attract.  Thus  we  are  rapidly  becoming  a  race 
of  fault  finders.  This  tendency  is  reflected  in 
the  crowded  condition  of  our  divorce  courts. 

Husbands  and  wives  can  not  expect  to  live 
together  happily  if  they  foolishly  persist  in  em¬ 
phasizing  the  things  about  which  they  disagree, 
instead  of  dwelling  upon  those  themes  and 
qualities  in  which  they  are  united,  and  which 
will  make  them  happy.  As  to  whether  marriage 
is  a  failure  or  not,  depends  upon  the  place  of 
mental  emphasis.  A  husband  can  quarrel  with 
the  most  queenly  woman  which  God  ever  made 
if  he  persists  in  emphasizing  some  trifling  thing 


The  Remedy  for  Social  Discord  43 

in  her  person  and  character  which  may  not  be 
exactly  pleasing  to  him.  A  wife  can  find  in¬ 
compatibility  of  temperament  in  the  most 
princely  husband  in  the  world  if  she  foolishly 
insists  upon  discussing  the  one  thing  about 
which  they  differ. 

The  secret  of  fellowship  in  the  marriage  rela¬ 
tion,  as  well  as  out  of  it,  lies  in  placing  the  men¬ 
tal  emphasis  upon  the  things  which  make  for 
harmony,  unity  and  oneness.  The  antidote 
for  social  discord,  for  the  divorce  courts,  is  for 
friends  and  neighbors,  husbands  and  wives,  to 
place  greater  stress  upon  the  things  wherein 
they  agree,  and  to  forget  the  things  about  which 
they  differ. 

Social  fellowship  is  fostered  and  social  dis¬ 
cord  banished  by  looking  for  and  emphasizing 
the  personal  qualities  that  please,  and  at  the 
same  time  overlooking  such  personal  character¬ 
istics  as  may  offend.  Such  a  mental  attitude  will 
produce  social  fellowship  and  friendship,  and 
thus  become  an  antidote  which  will  counteract 
many  of  the  discords  of  our  social  life. 


VI 


THE  MENTAL  ANTIDOTE  FOR  FORE- 

BODING 

Nervous  people  suffer  untold  distress  from 
a  subconscious  and  undefined  but  ever-present 
fear  that  something  unfortunate  or  dreadful  is 
going  to  happen.  They  live  in  a  state  of  an¬ 
ticipation  and  fear  of  trouble  or  misfortune. 
While  this  state  is  abnormal  and  indicates  a 
morbid  condition  of  the  mind,  the  agitation 
caused  by  such  mental  attitude  is  none  the  less 
disturbing  and  distressing. 

Frank,  the  farmer’s  son,  accompanied  Mag¬ 
gie,  the  miller’s  daughter,  home  from  church 
Sunday  evening.  As  this  was  Maggie’s  first 
real  company  the  event  made  a  very  deep  im¬ 
pression  on  her  sensitive  mind  and  heart.  The 
next  Monday  morning  found  Maggie  at  the 
wash  tub,  busy  with  the  family  washing.  Her 
mother,  coming  in  unannounced,  was  surprised 

44 


The  Mental  Antidote  for  Foreboding  45 

to  find  her  daughter,  usually  so  cheerful,  in 
tears.  Much  concerned,  she  inquired  as  to  the 
cause  of  Maggie’s  grief.  With  maidenly  re¬ 
serve  and  embarrassment,  Maggie  hesitated  to 
make  explanation.  Her  mother,  now  still  more 
deeply  anxious  as  to  the  cause  of  the  flowing 
tears,  pressed  her  daughter  for  an  explanation, 
which  came  in  broken  speech  between  her  sobs 
of  grief.  “Why,  mother,  I  was  just  thinking, 
just  thinking,  that  if  Frank  and  I  should  get 
married  and  we  should  have  a  little  boy,  and 
he  should  go  down  to  the  mill  pond  and  get 
drowned,  how  terribly  we  would  feel.”  For¬ 
bid  that  we  should  be  accused  of  provoking  a 
smile  at  the  expense  of  the  highest  and  holiest 
relationship  of  life;  not  that,  but  the  incident 
clearly  reveals  the  tendency  of  the  human  mind 
to  borrow  trouble,  and  even  pay  heavy  interest 
on  an  imaginary  obligation  which  has  not  yet 
been  incurred. 

The  fact  of  the  matter  is  that  most  of  our 
troubles,  like  the  Irishman’s,  never  happen  at 
all  and  we  have  had  all  our  worry  for  nothing. 
If  half  the  troubles  we  have  anticipated  had 
really  happened,  we  would  all  have  been  dead 
long  ago.  The  morbid  mind  takes  the  position 


4 6  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

that  we  should  always  be  prepared  for  the  worst 
and,  by  that  very  attitude,  constantly  antici¬ 
pates  the  worst.  The  healthful  mind  takes  the 
position  that  the  best  way  to  prepare  for  the 
worst  is  to  anticipate  the  good,  and  thus  live 
in  hope  and  expectation  instead  of  foreboding 
and  fear. 

Some  people  can  not  enjoy  even  the  finest 
kind  of  a  day  because  it  is  a  “Weather  breeder” 
and  may  bring  a  storm  to-morrow.  A  few 
people  can  really  enjoy  a  rainstorm,  for  they 
know  that  the  sun  always  shines  after  the  rain. 

An  invalid  lady  was  inquired  of  as  to  her 
health,  when  she  replied,  “Oh,  I  am  better  to¬ 
day,  but  I  know  that  I  shall  be  worse  to-morrow, 
because  I  am  always  worse  after  I  am  better.” 
A  more  fortunate  and  happy  mental  attitude 
would  have  been  to  have  reminded  herself  that 
she  was  always  better  after  she  was  worse. 

Nervous  mothers  endure  untold  mental  suf¬ 
fering  from  a  foreboding  that  something  dis¬ 
astrous  is  going  to  happen  to  some  of  the  chil¬ 
dren.  They  scarcely  dare  to  let  the  children  go 
out  of  their  sight  for  fear  of  some  misfortune 
or  accident.  When  their  children  are  out  of 
sight  they  are  in  constant  fear  that  they  are 


The  Mental  Antidote  for  Foreboding  47 

sick,  or  in  bad  company,  or  in  trouble  of  some 
kind.  The  mother  who  thus  anticipates  the 
worst  for  her  children  invites  it,  for  the  mind 
always  invites  to  itself,  and  others,  what  it 
anticipates.  She  thus  makes  herself  unhappy 
and  withdraws  from  her  loved  ones  the  protect¬ 
ing  power  of  the  thought-force  that  anticipates 
health,  safety  and  virtue.  It  is  no  uncommon 
experience  for  us  to  meet  the  very  things  return¬ 
ing  to  us  that  we  have  projected  into  the  future 
in  our  thoughts. 

The  only  happy  and  helpful  mental  attitude 
toward  the  future  is  that  which  anticipates  the 
best  things  for  self  and  others  and  expects  the 
good  in  life,  and  not  the  evil.  “Never  cross 
the  bridge  until  you  come  to  it,”  is  a  wise  and 
pertinent  proverb  for  worrying  people.  Happi¬ 
ness  is  impossible  for  those  who,  in  addition  to 
worrying  over  all  the  troubles  they  ever  have 
had  and  all  that  they  have  now,  persist  in  an¬ 
ticipating  all  the  troubles  they  ever  expect  to 
have  in  the  future. 

The  major  portion  of  the  unhappiness  of  the 
world  could  be  banished  before  sunrise  to¬ 
morrow  if  people  would  adopt  the  mental  atti¬ 
tude  and  habit  of  anticipating  the  best  things 


48  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

of  life  instead  of  the  worst,  the  good  things  in¬ 
stead  of  the  bad. 

God,  the  father  of  infinite  love  and  mercy,  as 
well  as  of  infinite  power,  created  man  for  good¬ 
ness  and  happiness.  He  expects  man  to  be 
happy,  and  is  disappointed  if  he  is  miserable. 
God  has  placed  more  forces  in  this  world  that 
make  for  happiness  than  for  misery.  “I  am 
come  that  ye  might  have  life  and  have  it  more 
abundantly.”  “The  earth  is  the  Lord’s,  and  the 
fullness  thereof.”  “The  rivers  of  God  are  full 
of  water.”  “The  trees  of  God  are  full  of 
sap.”  “My  cup  runneth  over.”  “My  word 
shall  be  in  you  a  well  of  water  springing  up 
unto  everlasting  life.”  “All  that  the  father 
hath  are  mine.”  “All  mine  are  thine.”  “All 
things  are  yours,  and  ye  are  Christ’s,  and  Christ 
is  God’s.”  “The  joy  of  the  Lord  is  your 
strength.”  “That  my  joy  might  remain  in  you 
and  that  your  joy  might  be  full.” 

This  perfection  of  divine  strength  and  full¬ 
ness  guarantees  to  every  one  who  is  in  harmony 
with  God,  through  Jesus  Christ,  the  satisfaction 
of  every  real  need.  “My  God  shall  supply  all 
your  need  through  the  riches  of  his  grace  in 
Christ  Jesus.”  “All  things  work  together  for 


The  Mental  Antidote  for  Foreboding  49 

good  to  them  that  love  God,  and  who  are  called 
according  to  his  purpose.” 

Every  one  who  not  only  says,  but  actually 
feels,  that  “All  things  work  together  for  good 
to  them  that  love  God,”  and  whose  own  will 
is  surrendered  to  God’s  will,  is  fortified  against 
every  foreboding  fear  and  anticipation  of  dis¬ 
aster.  The  history  of  missionaries,  martyrs 
and  religious  pioneers  proves  the  possibility  of 
peace  and  poise  of  mind  under  circumstances 
which  naturally  produce  agitation  and  fear. 
God  is  infinitely  more  concerned  for  us,  and 
for  our  children,  than  we  possibly  can  be  for 
ourselves.  He  is  more  intensely  interested  in 
the  welfare  of  us  all  than  we  are.  He  delights 
to  do  for  us  that  which  will  serve  the  highest 
ends  and  purposes  of  life. 

The  best  possible  mental  antidote  for  fore¬ 
bodings  and  fear  is  that  mental  attitude  toward 
God,  commonly  called  faith,  which  recognizes 
at  all  times  that  God  our  father,  who  was  re¬ 
vealed  to  us  as  such  by  Jesus  Christ,  has  planned 
for  us  the  best  things;  and  that  He  will  do  for 
us  and  in  us  and  through  us,  no  matter  what 
our  experiences  may  be,  that  which  in  the  end 
is  highest  and  best.  “The  Lord  is  my  light 


50  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

and  my  salvation,  whom  shall  I  fear?  The 
Lord  is  the  strength  of  my  life,  of  whom  shall 
I  be  afraid?”  Ps.  27:  1. 

Such  a  mental  attitude  will  lead  us  to  desire 
the  best  things,  expect  the  best  things,  and  be 
prepared  to  receive  the  best  things  for  our¬ 
selves.  We  will  learn  in  a  short  time  also  to 
see  the  best  things  in  others  and  anticipate  only 
the  best  things  from  others. 

Living  in  such  a  mental  attitude  and  atmos¬ 
phere  will  soon  soothe  and  quiet  the  strained 
and  weakened  nerves,  which  are  the  cause  of 
foreboding.  The  morbid  fears  and  fancies  will 
disappear  and  a  normal  condition  of  healthful 
and  happy-mindedness  will  return. 


VII 


POISE  FOR  THE  UNBALANCED  MIND 

Our  public  institutions  for  men  and  women 
of  unbalanced  minds  are  crowded  and  more 
buildings  are  in  process  of  erection  to  care  for 
the  daily  increasing  number  of  those  whose 
minds  are  devoid  of  poise  and  voluntary  con¬ 
trol.  Why  do  men  and  women  become  men¬ 
tally  unbalanced?  Why  do  so  many  become 
insane? 

While  certain  neurologists  tell  us  that  we 
are  all  crazy,  more  or  less,  only  those  whose 
minds  are  not  under  their  own  voluntary  con¬ 
trol  are  legal  subjects  for  our  detention  asylums. 
The  majority  of  these,  aside  from  those  who 
have  destroyed  their  nervous  vitality  by  ex¬ 
cesses,  will  be  found  to  have  become  mentally 
unbalanced  by  permitting  the  mind  to  dwell 
continuously  upon  one  idea  until  that  idea  or 
thought  became  so  fixed  in  the  mind  that  they 

5i 


5  2  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

could  think  of  nothing  else.  Continual  think- 
ing  upon  the  same  idea  creates,  as  it  were,  nerve 
paths  in  the  brain,  along  which  the  often  re¬ 
peated  thought  runs  involuntarily  and  continu¬ 
ously. 

When  the  individual’s  mind  continues  to 
dwell  upon  one  single  thought  or  phase  of 
thought,  so  that  he  can  not  get  his  mind  off 
of  that  thought,  he  is  said  to  have  lost  his 
mind.  In  a  word  he  is  mentally  unbalanced,  he 
is  insane;  or  he  has  gone  crazy  if  his  thought 
is  accompanied  by  violent  actions.  The  indi¬ 
vidual  thus  affected  has  not  really  lost  his  mind; 
he  has  simply  lost  all  voluntary  control  of  his 
mind. 

To  restore  poise  to  the  unbalanced  mind  is 
a  matter  of  deep  concern,  both  to  the  friends 
of  the  afflicted  and  the  public.  The  administra¬ 
tion  of  drugs  has  long  since  been  abandoned 
by  the  best  neurologists,  so  far  at  least  as  any 
thought  of  restoring  the  mind  to  its  normal  con¬ 
dition  by  the  drug  is  concerned.  To  get  the 
mind  off  the  one  idea  or  thought  that  is  dis¬ 
tressing  it  offers  the  surest  hope  of  restoration. 
Hence,  patients  are  now  being  given  light  tasks 
that  will  call  into  action  other  thoughts.  Knit- 


Poise  for  the  Unbalanced  Mind  53 

ting,  fancy  work,  sewing,  tending  a  flower  bed, 
cultivating  a  patch  of  ground  and  various  other 
tasks  suited  to  the  condition  of  the  patient  are 
assigned,  and  good  results  are  being  obtained. 

In  mental  disturbances,  however,  an  ounce 
of  prevention  is  worth  a  good  many  pounds  of 
cure,  and  psychologists,  as  well  as  neurologists, 
are  placing  special  emphasis  here.  They  are 
seeking  to  have  the  mind  turned  into  another 
channel  before  the  owner  has  lost  voluntary 
control.  The  importance  of  this  position  is 
aptly  illustrated  in  the  story  of  the  old 
darkie  and  his  last  dollar.  A  gentleman  who 
was  out  for  an  early  morning  walk  along 
the  bank  of  a  southern  river  saw  an  elderly 
colored  man  approaching  at  a  distance.  The 
darkie  seemed  to  be  in  deep  meditation  as  he 
walked  along  with  his  hands  thrust  deep  in  his 
trousers  pockets.  As  he  came  nearer,  suddenly 
he  drew  his  right  hand  from  his  pocket  and 
made  a  motion  as  though  throwing  something 
far  out  into  the  river.  In  a  moment  a  splash 
followed  the  movement  and  the  curiosity  of  the 
gentleman  was  considerably  aroused  to  know 
what  the  old  darkie  had  thrown  away.  So  he 
drew  near  and  accosted  the  colored  man  as 


54  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

follows:  “My  friend,  what  was  that  which 
you  just  now  threw  into  the  river?”  The 
negro,  with  crestfallen  look,  hesitated  for  a 
moment  and  then  replied:  “To  tell  de  hones’ 
truf,  boss,  dat  was  de  last  dollar  dat  I  had  in 
do  worl’.”  “Why,  what  on  earth  made  you 
throw  the  last  dollar  you  had  in  the  world  into 
the  river?”  “Well,  boss,  it  was  just  like  dis: 
I  fell  in  love  wid  ole  Zeke’s  yallow  gal,  an’  I 
tried  to  persuad’  her  to  marry  me,  but  she  re¬ 
fus’d.  I  pressed  my  suit,  boss,  for  I  jus’  couldn’t 
live  widout  dat  gal,  but  she  jus’  wouldn’t  marry 
me.  She  said  I  was  too  ole  and  shif’less  an’ 
good  fo’  nothin’. 

“So,  boss,  I  came  home  and  tried  to  sleep, 
but  I  jus’  couldn’t  sleep  fo’  thinkin’  ’bout  dat 
gal.  I  toss’  an’  toss’  on  my  bed,  but  couldn’t  git 
my  mine  off  fum  dat  gal.  So  I  jes’  got  up  and 
went  down  upon  my  knees  beside  de  bed  and 
ask  de  good  Lord  to  help  me  git  my  mine  off 
dat  gal.  I  got  back  in  bed,  boss,  an’  tried  to 
sleep,  but  I  jes’  toss’d  an’  toss’d  all  night  and 
couldn’t  sleep  for  thinking  ’bout  dat  gal.  Now, 
boss,  you  knows  dat  when  you  gits  yo  mine  on 
a  thing  and  can’t  git  yo  mine  off  from  dat  thing 
you’se  gwine  to  lose  yo  mine.  So,  boss,  I  jes’ 


Poise  for  the  Unbalanced  Mind  55 

got  up  and  cum’ed  out  heah  along  de  ribber 
trying  to  think  how  in  de  work  I  was  gwine 
to  get  my  mine  off  dat  gal.  Den,  boss,  when 
I  put  my  han’  in  my  pocket  and  felt  dat  dollah, 
it  jus’  occur’d  to  me  dat,  if  I  threw  dat  dollah 
into  de  ribber,  it  would  help  me  to  git  my  mine 
off  from  dat  yellow  gal  by  thinkin’  what  a  fool 
I  wuz  to  throw  de  last  dollah  I  had  in  de 
work  into  de  ribber.” 

The  story  may  or  may  not  be  true  but  the  old 
darkie’s  conclusion  is  absolutely  sound  and 
philosophical  as  well  as  psychological.  If  one 
gets  his  mind  on  a  thing  and  can’t  get  his  mind 
off  from  that  thing,  “he’s  gwine  to  lose  his 
mind.”  The  recognition  of  this  law  of  mental 
action  has  saved  many  a  man  and  woman  from 
the  insane  asylum,  and  a  larger  recognition  of 
this  law  would  save  many  more  not  only  from 
the  totally  unbalanced  mind  but  also  from  days 
and  nights  of  needless  worry  and  suffering. 

The  physician  who  sends  his  neurotic  patient 
to  another  climate  for  change  of  air,  diet  and 
water  understands  that  the  changing  of  scenery 
and  the  taking  of  the  mind  off  from  the  thing 
which  is  agitating  it  by  getting  the  attention 
fixed  upon  strange  mountains,  lakes,  river  and 


5  6  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

landscapes  will  do  far  more  to  restore  balance 
and  poise  than  the  same  air,  water  and  diet 
could  do  at  home. 

Let  no  unpleasant,  irritating  thought  pass 
too  frequently  through  the  brain  cells.  Each 
time  it  is  wearing  a  deeper  and  deeper  groove, 
creating  soon  a  well-worn  nerve  path  from 
which  it  will  be  well-nigh  impossible  to  expel 
it  while  the  brain  itself  lasts. 

Mentally  scolding,  fault  finding  or  arguing  in 
your  own  mind  by  directing  your  thought  to 
some  absent  one,  as  though  present,  greatly  dis¬ 
turbs  the  poise  and  balance  of  the  mind.  It  is 
easy  for  a  nervous  mother,  whom  we  may  use 
as  a  type  of  neurotic  people,  to  go  on  mentally 
scolding  a  child,  even  long  after  the  child 
has  left  her  presence.  The  act  has  “gotten 
on  to  her  nerves,”  and  she  goes  over  it  again 
and  again,  storming  at  the  child  in  her  mind 
as  though  she  were  still  present.  “Why  did 
Mary  do  such  a  thoughtless  thing?”  “How 
could  she  be  so  careless?”  “Why  can  not  chil¬ 
dren  be  more  thoughtful?”  Thus  many  moth¬ 
ers,  and  others  of  nervous  temperament,  have 
lost  poise  of  mind  and  fretted  themselves  into 
a  chronic  state  of  irritability  by  mentally  scold- 


Poise  for  the  Unbalanced  Mind  57 

ing  a  child,  a  neighbor,  or  a  helper.  The  habit 
of  mental  scolding  may  be  extended  toward  the 
grocer,  the  baker,  the  butcher  or  the  dress¬ 
maker,  until  the  mind  has  no  relaxation  from 
the  stress  and  strain  thus  put  upon  it. 

Mentally  quarreling  or  arguing  with  those 
with  whom  you  may  differ  should  also  be 
avoided.  Whether  real  or  fancied,  by  con¬ 
tinually  arguing  the  matter  in  one’s  own  mind 
the  difference  is  greatly  magnified;  and  the 
other  party  not  being  present  to  make  known 
his  side  of  the  question  and  point  of  view,  the 
whole  problem  becomes  one-sided  and  distorted. 
The  mental  arguer  thus  feels  himself  much 
more  greatly  injured  than  though  he  had  dis¬ 
cussed  the  matter  with  the  party  concerned 
face  to  face.  Then,  a  mental  quarrel  can  be 
continued  and  renewed  in  season  and  out  of 
season  indefinitely  until  the  feelings  are  more 
harrowed  and  the  mental  poise  more  disturbed 
than  though  the  second  party  were  present  to 
argue  in  person.  If  you  have  any  difference 
with  any  one,  have  it  out  at  once  in  person,  if 
necessary,  and  then  forget  it  forever  and  save 
your  peace  of  mind. 

Mental  fault  finding  must  also  be  classed 


58  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

with  mental  scolding  and  mentally  quarreling 
as  destructive  to  the  poise  and  balance  of  the 
mind,  and  these  three  states  of  the  mind  or 
mental  attitudes  should  be  carefully  avoided  if 
the  normal  poise  and  balance  of  the  mind  is  to 
be  preserved. 

The  mental  antidote  for  the  unbalanced  mind 
is  that  forethought  which  will  prevent  the  mind 
dwelling  too  much  or  too  long  upon  any  ex¬ 
citing  cause  or  thought,  be  it  exhilarating  or 
depressing,  by  directing  the  mind  voluntarily 
or  subjectively  to  other  interesting  thoughts  and 
things.  If  the  mind  be  already  out  of  poise 
and  balance  no  pains  or  expense  should  be 
spared  to  present  situations  and  attractions  that 
will  furnish  new  thought  upon  which  the  mind 
may  run. 


VIII 


THE  MENTAL  ANTIDOTE  FOR 

FAILURE 

The  statement  is  current  that  from  sixty  to 
eighty  per  cent,  of  men  who  start  in  business 
fail.  Many  of  these  succeed  after  making  a 
second  and  even  third  start  in  life.  An  analysis 
of  these  failures  would  show  many  different 
primary  causes  for  defeat.  Many  of  these 
failures,  however,  could  be  traced  to  wrong 
mental  attitude,  to  poor  psychological  insight 
on  the  part  of  the  man  who  failed. 

In  view  of  the  above  conclusion,  business  psy¬ 
chology  is  being  emphasized  and  applied  to 
every  form  of  service  and  to  every  calling  in 
life  as  never  before.  The  human  mind  is  no 
longer  studied  in  a  mere  scholastic  manner, 
making  a  scientific  analysis  of  the  human  brain 
as  to  the  intellect,  will  and  emotions;  but  the 
human  mind  is  now  being  studied  in  its  actual 

59 


60  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

workings  in  every-day  life  in  its  control  of 
human  conduct  and  action. 

As  far  then  as  wrong  mental  attitude  is  re¬ 
sponsible  for  man’s  failure  in  any  of  life’s  un¬ 
dertakings,  so  far  may  man  become  successful 
by  assuming  the v  right  mental  attitude  toward 
achievement  and  success. 

We  shall  make  no  attempt  here  to  discuss 
in  detail  the  principles  and  applications  of  mod¬ 
ern  psychology  to  the  great  theme  of  Success 
and  Failure.  We  shall  merely  suggest  some 
fundamental  truths  which,  if  appropriated  by 
the  individual  as  his  own  and  applied  in  fixing 
his  own  mental  attitude  toward  the  problems 
confronting  him  in  his  calling  or  profession, 
will  go  far  toward  eliminating  failure  and  in¬ 
suring  success. 

RIGHT  MENTAL  ATTITUDE 

The  apostle  Paul  was  probably  the  most  ef¬ 
fective  and  successful  preacher  of  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  that  the  world  has  ever  seen. 
A  study  of  his  life  and  success  will  show  that 
the  auxiliary  verb  “Can”  had  a  large  place  in 
his  vocabulary  and  conduct,  while  that  feeble 


The  Mental  Antidote  for  Failure  6 1 

and  failure-producing  word  “Can’t”  had  abso¬ 
lutely  no  place  in  his  life. 

Modern  research  and  experience  is  proving 
that  Paul’s  mental  attitude  was  sound  from  the 
viewpoint  of  both  the  scriptures  and  psychology, 
when  he  said,  “I  can  do  all  things  through 
Christ  who  strengtheneth  me.”  From  that  day 
forth  his  “I  can”  of  faith  became  the  watch¬ 
word  of  his  success. 

SOME  RECOGNIZED  FACTS 

“As  a  man  thinketh  so  is  he,”  and  it  is  also 
equally  true  that  “As  a  man  thinketh  so  does 
he.”  “He  can  who  thinks  he  can.”  He  can’t 
who  thinks  he  can’t.  The  CAN  of  faith  is 
the  surest  way  to  success.  The  CAN’T  of 
doubt  is  the  shortest  route  to  failure.  The 
hand  never  reaches  higher  than  the  heart. 
Achievement,  as  a  rule,  is  never  greater  than 
the  courage.  He  who  expects  great  things, 
undertakes  great  tasks  and  achieves  great  re¬ 
sults. 

Man’s  success  in  business,  in  his  profession 
and  in  life’s  tasks  in  general  never  rises  higher 
than  his  confidence  in  himself,  in  his  powers  of 


6 2  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

mind  and  body.  No  one  can  succeed  who  all 
the  while  doubts  his  ability  to  succeed,  and 
who  believes  that  he  is  going  to  fail.  It  has 
been  said  that  “God  himself  can  not  use  a 
discouraged  man.”  He  must  first  inspire  the 
discouraged  doubter  with  faith  and  confidence. 
There  is  no  philosophy  or  psychology  by  which 
a  man  can  accomplish  that  which  he  believes  he 
can  not  perform.  Nothing,  however,  can  de¬ 
feat  the  man  who  believes  that  he  CAN,  re¬ 
solves  that  he  CAN  and  wills  that  he  CAN  suc¬ 
ceed.  Such  a  man  can  not  be  talked  down, 
written  down,  laughed  down,  ridiculed  down 
nor  sat  down  upon. 

Proper  self-confidence  is  not  a  vulgar  quality 
of  mind  but  a  sacred  talent.  When  one  has  a 
God-given  duty  to  perform  he  has  a  right  to 
believe,  like  the  apostle  Paul,  that  he  can  do 
all  things  that  God  has  planned  for  him  to  do. 
Self-depreciation  in  the  presence  of  a  known 
duty  is  the  cowardice  of  unbelief.  God  calls 
every  man  to  seek  the  highest  development  of 
his  own  life  and  to  use  that  development  in 
rendering  service  to  others,  and  especially  to 
those  who  may  in  any  way  be  dependent  upon 
him.  The  right  mental  attitude  is  for  each  one 


The  Mental  Antidote  for  Failure  63 

to  believe  that  he  can  do  all  that  God  calls  him 
to  do. 

Although  the  apostle  Paul  was  called  to  some 
exceedingly  difficult  tasks,  yet  he  never  said,  “I 
can’t.”  He  could  and  did  say,  truthfully,  “I 
can  do  all  things  (that  God  calls  me  to  do), 
through  Christ  who  strengthened!  me.”  His 
willingness,  coupled  with  his  ability,  became 
the  channel  through  which  the  divine  power 
could  act  effectively.  The  large  place  which 
the  auxiliary  verb  CAN  had  in  Paul’s  life 
made  possible,  under  God,  his  great  success. 

“God  made  man  to  have  dominion.”  He 
intended  man  to  be  a  master  and  not  a  slave. 
He  expects  him  to  be  a  success  and  not  a  fail¬ 
ure.  He  has  no  reward  for  the  quitter  and 
offers  no  crown  to  the  man  who  fails.  The 
divine  emphasis  is  upon  faith,  mental  confi¬ 
dence,  which  is  the  key  to  success  not  only  in 
religion  but  in  every  calling  of  life.  Man  al¬ 
ways  fails  when  his  confidence  fails.  Doubt  is 
the  first  crevasse  in  the  dam  of  life  which  lets 
in  the  flood  of  failure.  Hence,  the  man  who  is 
filled  with  doubt,  who  thinks  of  failure,  who 
talks  of  failure,  and  who  even  walks  like  a  fail¬ 
ure,  carries  with  him  an  atmosphere  which  fore- 


64  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 
dooms  him  to  defeat. 

A  wavering  mind  makes  wavering  execution. 
A  confident  mental  attitude  begets  the  force  and 
accuracy  that  wins  victories.  Every  athletic 
coach  strives,  from  the  day  training  begins,  to 
instil  confidence  into  his  men.  Every  intelligent 
coach  and  trainer  recognizes  that  contests  in 
football,  baseball,  track  meets,  tennis,  golf 
and  even  in  the  prize  ring,  have  been  lost  before 
the  struggle  really  began  because  of  the  lack 
of  confidence  on  the  part  of  the  loser.  What 
is  true  in  sports  is  true  in  every  contest  and 
competition  in  life. 

RIGHT  MENTAL  EMPHASIS 

While  lack  of  confidence  has  been  a  large 
factor  in  many  of  life’s  failures,  wrong  mental 
emphasis  has  also  played  an  important  part 
in  numerous  defeats.  The  nervous  and  appre¬ 
hensive,  in  facing  the  problems  of  life,  have 
a  tendency  to  dwell  upon  the  difficulties  to  be 
encountered  rather  than  to  emphasize  those 
factors  which  promise  success.  While  both 
wisdom  and  prudence  suggest  the  advisabil¬ 
ity  of  counting  the  full  cost  before  entering 


The  Mental  Antidote  for  Failure  65 

upon  any  task,  yet  an  over-emphasis  of  the  dif¬ 
ficulties,  either  real  or  imaginary,  leads  to  dis¬ 
couragement  and  defeat.  Hence,  it  frequently 
happens  that  a  single  talent  man,  without  spe¬ 
cial  education  but  with  a  full  stock  of  confi¬ 
dence,  makes  a  larger  success  than  the  college- 
trained  man  who  lacks  the  courage  of  faith.  In 
fact,  wide  knowledge  and  over-culture  often 
breeds  increased  timidity  because  of  a  too  care¬ 
ful  weighing  of  the  hinderances  to  be  met  and 
thus  to  too  much  emphasis  being  placed  upon 
the  possibilities  of  failure.  If  “fools  do  some¬ 
times  rush  in  where  angels  fear  to  tread,”  the 
fact  remains  that  fools  (?)  by  their  very  bold¬ 
ness  often  secure  the  victory  while  the  wise  (?) 
are  timidly  balancing  the  possibilities  of  de¬ 
feat. 

History  affords  few  better  illustrations  of 
the  psychological  folly  of  emphasizing  the 
things  which  make  for  defeat  rather  than  those 
factors  which  suggest  victory  than  is  found  in 
the  story  of  Israel  at  Kadesh  Barnea.  God  had 
promised  his  chosen  people  the  Land  of  Canaan 
and  they  stood  in  plain  view  of  the  vine-clad 
hills  and  fertile  valleys,  the  land  of  figs  and 
olives  and  dates,  the  land  of  oil  and  wine,  the 


66  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

land  reported  to  be  literally  “flowing  with  milk 
and  honey.”  They  hesitate,  however,  to  at¬ 
tempt  to  enter,  in  view  of  the  reports  which 
had  come  to  them  of  the  strong,  warlike  people 
in  possession  of  the  land.  Hence,  they  selected 
from  their  company  twelve  men  who  should  go 
over  and  spy  out  the  conditions  and  report  to 
them. 

When  these  twelve  spies  had  returned,  after 
forty  days  of  investigation,  they  all  agreed  in 
their  report  as  to  the  fruitfulness  and  desir¬ 
ability  of  the  country.  Ten  of  them,  however, 
emphasized  the  difficulties  in  taking  possession 
of  the  land  owing  to  the  strongly-walled  cities 
and  giant  warriors  to  be  overcome.  Two  of 
the  spies  expressed  the  opinion  that,  however 
strong  the  walls  might  be  and  however  great 
the  giant  warriors  were,  Israel  was  abundantly 
able  to  conquer  the  land  for,  said  they,  “The 
Lord  our  God  will  fight  for  us  and  we  shall 
be  stronger  than  they.” 

But  the  children  of  Israel  harkened  to  the 
voice  of  the  ten  who  emphasized  the  things 
which  made  for  defeat  rather  than  to  give  heed 
to  the  two  who  emphasized  the  factors  which 
made  for  victory  and  thus  they  turned  their 


The  Mental  Antidote  for  Failure  67 

backs  upon  the  “Promised  Land”  and  marched 
back  into  the  wilderness  and  lost  their  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  success. 

While  the  proportion  of  ten  to  two  may  not 
hold,  we  still  find  many  men  to-day  in  business 
and  professional  life  emphasizing  the  factors 
which  make  for  failure  instead  of  dwelling  upon 
the  facts  which  promise  success  and  victory. 
Business  psychology  as  well  as  common  sense 
teaches  that  confidence  is  essential  to  success, 
and  that  nothing  destroys  confidence  more  quick¬ 
ly  than  the  habit  of  dwelling  upon  the  diffi¬ 
culties  to  be  met  and  the  unfavorable  conditions 
to  be  encountered.  Yet,  almost  every  financial 
panic  has  had  its  inception  in  a  lack  of  confi¬ 
dence.  Such  lack  of  confidence  has  usually  been 
created  because  at  certain  periods  our  business 
and  commercial  leaders  have  begun  to  empha¬ 
size,  in  concert  as  it  were,  those  conditions  and 
factors  which  make  for  financial  depression  and 
failure. 

CONFIDENCE  CAN  BE  CULTIVATED 

If  confidence  can  be  destroyed  by  emphasiz¬ 
ing  the  factors  which  lead  to  failure,  confidence 


68  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

can  also  be  created  by  dwelling  upon  those  con¬ 
ditions  which  tend  to  success  and  victory.  In 
case  the  lack  of  confidence  is  due  to  natural 
timidity,  the  individual  should  cultivate  cour¬ 
age,  then  more  courage  and  then  still  more 
courage.  The  will  should  also  be  cultivated 
so  that  when  a  decision  is  made  it  should  stay 
made.  With  many  people  to  come  to  a  deci¬ 
sion,  to  “make  up  the  mind,”  is  easier  than  it 
is  to  keep  the  mind  “made  up”  after  a  deci¬ 
sion  has  been  reached.  Refuse  to  let  the  fear 
of  failure  enter  the  mind  by  refusing  to  dwell 
upon  fear-producing  thoughts  and  conditions. 
“Fear,”  said  Napoleon,  “I  don’t  know  him.” 
Napoleon’s  mental  habit  was  to  refuse  to  recog¬ 
nize  fear-producing  conditions.  Having  set  his 
face  to  a  task,  he  burned  his  bridges  behind 
him  and  refused  to  look  back.  He  looked  for¬ 
ward  only  when  once  his  decision  was  made 
and  that  forward  look  had  in  it  the  anticipation 
of  victory.  He  who  eliminates  the  impossible 
from  his  own  mind  will  come  the  nearest  to 
working  what  we  are  pleased  to  term  “mod¬ 
ern  miracles.” 

Let  each  one  cultivate  a  fixed  faith,  a  per¬ 
manent  mental  attitude  that  success  in  life  is 


The  Mental  Antidote  for  Failure  69 

natural  and  normal,  that  failure  is  unnatural  and 
abnormal.  God  made  man  for  success  and  not 
failure.  Jesus  Christ  declared  to  his  disciples 
that,  “With  God  all  things  are  possible,”  and 
he  set  over  against  this  statement  another, 
“Nothing  shall  be  impossible  to  you,”  nothing 
that  God  has  in  his  purpose  for  you  to  accom¬ 
plish.  Thus,  we  have  a  right  to  believe  in  suc¬ 
cess,  to  expect  success  and  to  live  for  success. 
“According  to  your  faith  be  it  unto  you,”  is  as 
true  in  business  life  as  in  religious  life.  Each 
one  will  have  just  that  measure  of  success  in 
life  that  he  has  the  mental  confidence  to  take 
and  no  more.  Success  awaits  only  those  who 
think  that  they  CAN  succeed,  who  believe  that 
they  CAN  succeed  and  who  resolve  that  they 
WILL  succeed. 


IX 


MENTAL  ATTITUDE  AND  HEALTH 

It  is  now  established  beyond  question  that 
the  mind  bears  a  close  and  vital  relation  to  the 
physical  health  of  the  body.  Within  recent 
years  much  discussion  has  been  had  and  many 
books  written  upon  one  phase  or  another  of 
mental  healing  or  mind  cures.  In  some  in¬ 
stances  organizations  have  been  formed  for  the 
primary  purpose  of  giving  special  emphasis  to 
the  principle  of  healing  without  drugs.  A  care¬ 
ful  study  of  the  positions  taken  by  these  dif¬ 
ferent  writers  and  advocates  will  reveal  that 
practically  the  same  principle  is  involved  in  the 
position  taken  by  the  extreme  advocate  of 
divine  healing  clear  through  to  the  extreme 
claims  made  by  the  professor  of  mental  sugges¬ 
tion,  purely  through  absent  treatment.  The  real 
purpose  of  each  and  all  of  these  advocates  is 
to  bring  the  mind  into  a  state  of  poise  and  bal- 

70 


Mental  Attitude  and  Health  71 

ance  and  confidence  in  which  the  nerve  centers 
will  be  free  from  agitation  and  irritation  and 
thus  be  in  condition  to  function  normally  in  re¬ 
lation  to  the  bodily  secretions,  which  is  the  real 
secret  of  restoring  and  preserving  physical 
health. 

With  the  nervous  system,  the  medium 
through  which  the  mind  functions,  acting  nor¬ 
mally,  the  bodily  secretions  will  be  carried  on 
so  perfectly  that  the  health  will  result.  Even 
when  the  secretory  functions  of  the  body  are 
overtaxed  by  indulgence,  accidents  or  infection, 
a  calm  and  confident  faith  in  the  recuperative 
forces  of  life  is  the  mightiest  factor  for  health 
that  has  yet  been  revealed.  Faith  healers,  mind 
healers,  massage  healers,  movement  healers  and 
medical  healers  all,  if  intelligent,  seek  to  awaken 
confidence  of  recovery  in  the  mind  of  the  patient 
and  then  rely  upon  the  vital  forces  of  life  to 
work  the  restoration  of  health. 

SOME  RECOGNIZED  FACTS 

The  mind  controls  the  bodily  functions 
through  the  medium  of  the  nervous  system. 
This  control  is  voluntary  and  direct  as  in  case 


72  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

of  the  movement  of  hands,  feet,  head  or  trunk 
of  the  body.  This  mental  control  is  also  invol¬ 
untary  and  indirect  as  seen  in  the  action  of  the 
organs  of  digestion,  secretion  and  elimination 
of  waste  matter.  Mind  control  may  also  in¬ 
clude  both  voluntary  and  involuntary  action,  as 
may  be  illustrated  in  the  breathing  or  in  the 
stimulation  of  the  action  of  the  heart  and  other 
organs  of  the  body  by  fixing  the  will  upon  them 
for  the  purpose  of  inciting  increased  action. 

Mental  moods  exert  a  marked  influence  upon 
the  bodily  functions.  One  may  be  just  sitting 
down  to  a  tempting  meal  with  an  appetite  keen 
and  eager  and  he  receives  a  telegram  announc¬ 
ing  the  sudden  death  of  an  absent  member  of 
the  family.  His  appetite  vanishes  instantly  and 
he  can  not  force  himself  to  eat  a  single  mouth¬ 
ful  of  food  although  the  stomach  remains  just 
as  empty  as  before  the  telegram  was  received. 
The  bad  news  paralyzed  at  once  the  action  of 
the  organs  of  secretion  and  digestion.  We  have 
come  to  understand  from  investigation  and 
experience  that  other  mental  moods,  such  as 
anger,  hate,  fear,  anxiety  and  mental  worry  of 
any  kind,  affect  unfavorably  the  normal  action 
of  our  organs  of  digestion  and  secretion,  and 


Mental  Attitude  and  Health  73 

thus  have  a  direct  bearing  upon  our  physical 
health.  We  are  compelled  to  accept  the  fact 
that  physical  health  can  be  affected,  both  di¬ 
rectly  and  subjectively,  through  the  mind. 

In  view  of  the  facts  just  stated,  the  proverb 
of  Solomon,  “As  a  man  thinketh  so  is  he,” 
applies  to  man’s  body  as  well  as  to  his  moral 
nature.  If,  therefore,  our  thought  plays  an 
important  part  in  producing  illness  it  must  also 
be  equally  true  that  our  thinking  has  an  im¬ 
portant  place  in  restoring  health.  In  fact,  just 
so  far  as  our  thoughts  have  had  a  part  in  pro¬ 
ducing  weakness  or  sickness  of  the  body,  just 
so  far  right  thinking  may  have  a  place  in  bring¬ 
ing  recovery  and  health. 

ALL  HEALING  IS  DIVINE  HEALING 

All  healing  is  DIVINE.  The  DEVIL  never 
healed  any  one  and  never  will.  The  forces 
that  make  for  evil,  by  whatever  name  you 
choose  to  designate  them,  produce  disease,  sick¬ 
ness  and  death.  The  vital,  the  divine  forces  of 
life  are  always  working  for  recovery  and 
health.  All  real  healing  takes  place  through 
the  operation  of  the  laws  of  life.  The  laws 


74  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

of  life  are  the  laws  of  God,  and  the  forces  of 
life  are  divine  forces  which  God  has  implanted 
in  every  human  being  at  the  inception  of  life. 
If  we  will  face  the  proposition  fairly  and 
frankly,  we  shall  be  forced  to  conclude,  what¬ 
ever  may  have  been  our  preconceived  opinion, 
that  all  healing  is  divine  healing. 

It  is  a  scientific  fact  that  effects  can  be  pre¬ 
vented  and  remedied  only  by  removing  the 
cause.  Disease  of  the  body  can  be  prevented 
or  removed  only  by  removing  the  cause.  The 
treatment  of  disease  has  undergone  a  complete 
revolution  in  the  history  of  the  practice  of  medi¬ 
cine  during  the  past  centuries.  Sickness  of  the 
body  is  now  attributed  to  entirely  different 
causes  and  sources  than  those  assigned  a  cen¬ 
tury  ago.  Remedial  agents  for  the  cure  of 
disease  have  also  undergone  a  like  revolution. 
Incantations,  charms  and  magical  concoctions 
no  longer  have  a  place  in  the  practice  of  heal¬ 
ing  among  intelligent  people.  Drugs  are  still 
administered  to  sick  people  but  more  with  a 
view  of  encouraging  the  mind  of  the  patient 
than  with  the  belief  on  the  part  of  the  physician 
that  drugs  have  any  power  to  increase  the  vital 
forces  which  are  the  real  source  of  healing. 


Mental  Attitude  and  Health  75 

The  logical  conclusion  is  that  recovery  from 
sickness  rests,  in  the  end,  in  the  vital  forces  of 
the  body  and  not  in  the  drug  administered. 

Since  the  real  source  of  healing  is  found  in 
the  vital  forces  of  the  body  and  since  God  is 
the  author  and  creator  of  the  vital  forces  that 
make  for  healing,  we  are  forced  to  conclude 
that  the  power  that  heals  is  divine  power.  How¬ 
ever,  having  accepted  this  proposition  it  still 
remains  for  us  to  understand  and  appropriate 
its  truth  and  make  it  effective  in  relation  to  our 
own  physical  health. 

It  is  impossible  for  us  to  discuss  in  detail,  in 
this  brief  space,  the  HOW?  and  WHY?  the 
mind  plays  such  an  important  part  in  assisting 
the  divine  forces  of  life  in  overcoming  sickness 
and  in  restoring  health.  We  must  confine  our 
discussion  and  statement  and  explanation  of 
three  general  propositions,  the  truth  which  each 
individual  may  appropriate  as  his  own  and  ap¬ 
ply  it  to  himself  in  its  practical  relation  to  his 
bodily  health.  We  have  reason  to  believe  that 
if  each  one  will  study  his  own  experiences  care¬ 
fully  and  accept  the  following  propositions  and 
apply  them  to  his  own  individual  case  he  will 
sooner  or  later  come  into  possession  of  all  the 


76  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

health  that  God  has  for  him  to  enjoy  so  far 
as  the  mind,  or  God  through  the  mind,  can 
bring  health  to  his  body. 

GOD  MADE  THE  HUMAN  BODY  TO  BE  WELL 

It  may  be  stated  as  a  general  principle  that 
God  made  the  human  body  to  be  well.  It  is  the 
finest  piece  of  mechanism  this  world  has  ever 
seen.  Having  made  the  body  to  be  well,  he 
naturally  desires  it  to  be  well  and  expects  it  to 
be  well.  If  the  body  is  ill,  the  fault  is  not  with 
God  but  with  the  individual.  As  long  as  we 
treat  this  perfect  piece  of  physical  mechanism 
properly  it  will  function  smoothly  in  all  its 
parts  and  relations.  Only  when  something  irri¬ 
tating  is  admitted  into  this  body  through  the 
mouth  or  the  mind  is  its  harmony  disturbed 
and  discord  set  up.  This  we  call  sickness  or 
dis-ease,  which  means  lack  of  ease,  absence  of 
harmony. 

There  are  many  causes,  both  immediate  and 
remote,  for  sickness.  All  sickness,  however,  is 
due  to  the  violations  of  the  laws  of  life;  and 
by  this  we  mean  the  violation  of  the  laws  under 
which  the  body  was  made  to  operate  harmoni- 


Mental  Attitude  and  Health 


77 


ously.  Many  of  these  violations  are  committed 
through  the  indulgences  of  the  appetites  and 
desires  of  the  body.  However,  one  of  the  most 
potent  factors  in  bringing  on  disease  is  the  un¬ 
favorable  attitude  and  condition  of  the  human 
mind.  Impure  thoughts,  fear,  worry,  dread, 
mental  depression,  over-excitement  and  nervous 
tension  and  stress  hinder  the  free  action  of 
organs  and  glands  of  digestion,  circulation  and 
secretion,  and  thus  the  system  becomes  clogged, 
poisoned  and  ultimately  diseased. 

Some  folks  treat  the  violations  of  the  laws 
of  life,  whether  these  violations  come  through 
the  appetites  and  desires  of  the  body  or  through 
the  mind,  simply  as  mistakes  and  errors.  The 
apostle  Paul  called  such  violations  of  the  laws 
of  life  SIN.  He  declares  that  “Sin  is  the  viola¬ 
tion  of  law.”  By  this  statement  he  does  not 
mean  the  violation  of  the  Mosaic  law,  or  the 
laws  of  the  state  or  nation,  but  the  violation 
of  the  law,  the  law  of  life.  Any  violation  of 
the  law  of  life  under  which  the  body  is  oper¬ 
ated  is  sin.  You  may  call  it  by  whatever  name 
you  wish  but  such  violation  always  produces, 
sooner  or  later,  sickness  and  suffering. 

Accepting  the  fact  that  God  made  the  human 


78  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

body  to  be  well,  and  also  realizing  that  this 
splendid  and  delicate  piece  of  physical  me¬ 
chanism  was  created  to  operate  harmoniously 
only  in  accord  with  the  laws  of  life  which  are 
infallible  because  they  are  the  laws  of  God,  we 
must  seek  to  live  in  harmony  with  the  will  of 
God  as  expressed  in  these  laws  of  life  if  we  are 
to  have  a  right  to  expect  and  claim  that  meas¬ 
ure  of  health  which  God  made  the  human  body 
to  enjoy. 

GOD  HAS  PROVIDED  FOR  RECOVERY  FROM 

SICKNESS 

No  one  should  feel  that,  when  sickness  does 
come  upon  him  through  some  violation  of  the 
laws  of  life,  through  ignorance  or  otherwise,  he 
must  remain  an  invalid  in  some  degree  at  least 
until  the  end  of  his  days.  God  has  graciously 
provided  for  the  full  and  complete  recovery 
from  sickness.  The  Old  and  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  abound  with  examples  of  healing  and  re¬ 
covery  on  the  part  of  the  sick.  The  experi¬ 
ences  of  life  are  also  replete  with  examples  of 
restoration  to  health.  The  forces  of  life  are 
always  working  for  the  restoration  of  the  sick 


Mental  Attitude  and  Health  79 

or  injured  body  to  normal  and  healthful  condi¬ 
tions.  When  a  cut  or  wound  is  made  on  the 
surface  of  the  body  the  forces  of  life  instantly 
set  to  work  to  stop  the  flow  of  blood  and  heal 
the  wound.  If  internal  inflammation  is  set  up, 
the  forces  of  nature  act  just  as  promptly  trying 
to  restore  the  membrane  or  tissue  to  normal 
conditions. 

For  generations  the  people  have  been  led 
to  believe  that  disease  always  tended  to  grow 
worse  instead  of  better.  The  writer  well  re¬ 
members  reading,  in  his  youthful  days,  from 
almanacs  and  circulars  containing  medical  ad¬ 
vertisements,  long  lists  of  symptoms  of  disease. 
Some  of  these  symptoms  every  reader  was  likely 
to  have  and  the  advertisement  was  sure  to  con¬ 
tain  somewhere  a  solemn  warning  that  disease 
never  gets  better  of  itself  but  constantly  grows 
worse,  unless  indeed  some  of  the  wonderful 
remedies  discovered  by  the  advertising  doctor 
was  taken  IN  TIME. 

In  addition  to  the  influences  just  referred  to, 
when  any  one  was  sick  the  doctor  was  sent  for 
in  haste,  hence  the  majority  of  people  were 
brought  up  with  the  feeling  that  when  one  was 
sick  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  take  some 


80  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

medicine  to  cure  the  disease.  The  success  of 
the  whole  system  of  drug  practice  has  been 
built  upon  this  false  conception  that  bodily  dis¬ 
ease  always  tended  to  grow  worse  and  that 
sickness  could  not  be  cured  without  putting 
some  drug  into  the  body  to  make  it  well.  The 
truth  of  the  matter  is  that  the  vital  forces  of  the 
human  system  are  constantly  working  to  keep 
the  body  well  and  restore  it  to  health  when 
sick. 

Still,  influenced  by  false  traditional  medical 
conceptions,  handed  down  from  generation  to 
generation,  the  average  patient  even  in  this  in¬ 
telligent  age  seems  to  expect  the  doctor  in  some 
mysterious  way  to  hand  him  healing  in  the 
magic  form  of  pills  and  powders.  Drugs  never 
added  an  iota  to  any  one’s  vitality  and  never 
will.  Dope,  in  the  form  of  poison,  has  hin¬ 
dered  far  more  than  helped  the  sick  to  recovery. 
The  after  results  of  such  medicine  is  often  more 
disastrous  than  the  disease.  Experience  and 
observation  has  already  taught  many  that  the 
vital  forces  recuperate  more  rapidly  without 
the  use  of  drugs  than  with.  Realization  is  com¬ 
ing  slowly  that  drugs  do  not  heal  and  that 
poison  in  any  form  never  cures.  The  only  way 


Mental  Attitude  and  Health  81 

that  the  vital  forces  of  life  can  be  increased  is 
from  nourishment  taken  from  proper  food  when 
the  digestive  organs  are  in  condition  to  digest 
and  assimilate  it. 

For  years  physicians  and  scientists  toiled  in 
their  laboratories  to  discover  some  specific 
which  would  destroy  the  tubercular  germ.  Such 
a  discovery  would  have  been  an  untold  blessing 
to  humanity.  In  the  meantime  tens  of  thou¬ 
sands  afflicted  with  tuberculosis  died.  Within 
recent  years,  impatient  at  the  delay  or  despair¬ 
ing  of  finding  a  cure  in  drugs,  physicians  have 
turned  their  attention  to  the  importance  of  at¬ 
tending  to  the  conditions  which  would  give  the 
vital  forces  of  life  the  most  favorable  chances 
of  working  out  a  cure.  With  the  necessary 
and  important  information  set  before  them, 
thousands  of  patients,  infected  with  the  dread 
tubercular  germs,  have  since  been  restored  to 
health  by  the  co-operation  of  proper  rest,  fresh 
air,  sunlight  and  plenty  of  nourishing  food, 
with  the  vital  forces  of  the  body. 

The  modern  physician,  whose  numbers  are 
daily  increasing,  will  use  far  less  poisonous 
drugs.  He  will  teach  his  patients  that  God  has 
provided  for  the  recovery  of  the  sick  through 


82  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

the  vital  forces  of  life.  He  will  seek  to  have 
them  clearly  understand  that  these  God-given 
forces  are  always  working  for  their  recovery, 
but  that  they  can  work  effectively  only  in  accord 
with  the  laws  of  life  and  health  in  respect  to 
proper  rest,  food,  air  and  exercise  and  the  ab¬ 
sence  of  excesses  of  appetite  and  the  indulgence 
of  desires.  The  patient  will  thus  come  to  have 
intelligent  faith  in  the  divine  forces  of  life  to 
fight  to  the  “last  ditch”  for  his  recovery  instead 
of  falsely  trusting  to  some  traditional  drug  to 
restore  him  to  health.  The  modern  physician 
should  be  remunerated  in  proportion  to  the  in¬ 
telligent,  experienced  and  trained  services  he 
can  render  rather  than  for  the  amount  (of  drugs 
he  can  sell. 

GOD  IS  GREATER  THAN  SICKNESS 

Faith  healing,  often  spoken  of  as  divine  heal¬ 
ing,  is  in  reality  but  mental  healing,  the  opera¬ 
tion  of  the  divine  forces  of  life  through  the 
mind.  Nothing  so  fortifies  the  human  mind 
as  an  absolute  faith  in  a  God  who  is  infinite  in 
power  and  love,  and  nothing  so  fortifies  a  sick 
patient  against  the  ravages  of  disease  as  faith 


Mental  Attitude  and  Health  83 

in  the  fact  that  God  is  greater  than  sickness 
and  hence  has  the  power  to  heal  disease.  There 
is  not  the  slightest  doubt,  from  scriptural  and 
historic  record  as  well  as  from  modern  experi¬ 
ences,  that  thousands  of  sick  people  have  re¬ 
covered  through  faith  healing  or  divine  heal¬ 
ing  as  some  prefer  to  call  it. 

We  heartily  indorse  the  fact  of  divine  heal¬ 
ing  as  we  have  already  stated  that  we  believe 
that  all  healing  is  divine.  It  is  the  point  of 
view  which  creates  the  wide  divergence  between 
the  usual  advocates  of  divine  healing  and  the 
students  of  modern  psychology.  Divine  healing 
or  faith  cure  has  been  presented  from  the  view¬ 
point  of  the  supernatural  and  miraculous.  Pos¬ 
sibly  the  reason  why  so  few  people,  relatively, 
accept  the  doctrine  of  Faith  healing  is  because 
they  believe  that  the  days  of  miracles  are 
passed  and  that  God  operates  through  the  laws 
of  life. 

Many  of  those  who  believed  in  divine  healing 
from  the  old  point  of  view  would  have  the  sick 
expect  that  God,  in  some  mysterious  manner, 
was  going  to  hand  them  health  out  of  Heaven. 
Those  who  believe  in  divine  healing  from  the 
new  point  of  view  believe  that  God  can  mani- 


84  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

fest  His  infinite  power  for  healing  just  as  won¬ 
derfully  and  marvelously  through  the  laws  of 
life  which  he  has  established  as  through  so- 
called  miracles. 

God,  the  infinite  Spirit  of  life,  power,  wis¬ 
dom  and  love,  is  imminent  in  His  creation  and 
especially  in  the  life  of  man,  manifesting  Him¬ 
self  and  His  power  through  the  laws  of  man’s 
physical  and  mental  life.  But,  God  is  also 
greater  than  His  creation,  greater  than  man 
in  whom  He  dwells.  Just  as  man  himself  may 
build  a  house  and  dwell  in  that  house,  and  yet 
be  greater  than  the  house,  so  God  dwells  in 
man  and  yet  is  above  man  and  greater  than 
man.  No  one  would  deny  that  an  infinite  God 
could  control  and  heal  man  in  a  manner  usually 
deemed  miraculous,  but  we  undertake  to  say 
that  God  does  not  so  manifest  His  power. 

God  has  not  in  all  recent  centuries  handed  a 
farmer  a  single  ear  of  corn  out  of  heaven,  say 
nothing  of  a  crib  full,  yet  He  has  given  farm¬ 
ers  uncounted  millions  of  ears  of  corn  through 
the  natural  laws  of  life  and  growth.  God  has 
not  seen  fit  to  place  in  the  arms  of  any  mother 
a  full-grown  son  or  daughter;  and  yet,  God  in 
His  goodness  has  placed  in  the  arms  of  num- 


Mental  Attitude  and  Health 


85 


berless  thousands  of  mothers  sons  and  daugh¬ 
ters  through  the  laws  of  life  and  natural  growth. 
So  while  God  has  given  multitudes  of  sick  peo¬ 
ple  health,  He  has  not  seen  fit  to  hand  out 
health  to  them  from  heaven  in  done-up  pack¬ 
ages.  He  has  brought  health  to  them  through 
the  vital  forces  of  the  body  and  the  confident  co¬ 
operation  of  the  mind. 

A  minister  whom  we  know  intimately  was 
seriously  in  need  of  healing.  He  had  for  years 
given  much  more  earnest  attention  to  books 
than  to  the  laws  of  health.  The  time  came 
when  he  must  have  healing  or  give  up  his  pro¬ 
fession.  He  sought  divine  healing  through 
prayer.  He  read  various  writers  upon  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  divine  healing  and,  in  addition,  studied 
carefully  and  prayerfully  all  the  passages  in 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments  upon  that  sub¬ 
ject.  The  more  he  shut  himself  in  his  room 
and  prayed  the  worse  he  became.  God  at  last 
answered  his  prayers  by  bringing  into  his  hands 
a  copy  of  Physical  Culture,  which  sent  him  out 
into  the  open  air  for  exercise  and  an  appetite 
for  sufficient  nourishing  food  to  support  his 
body.  In  six  months  he  was  a  well  man.  He 
was  divinely  healed,  but  through  the  divine 


86  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

forces  of  life  operating  in  accord  with  the  laws 
of  physical  health. 

Corn  grows  by  rule  and  so  does  a  healthful 
body.  “Whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall 
he  also  reap.”  The  laws  of  life  are  absolutely 
infallible  because  they  are  the  laws  of  God. 
If  a  man  disobeys  the  laws  of  health  he 
*will  reap  sickness.  There  is  no  law  or  phi¬ 
losophy  whereby  a  man  can  sow  thistle  seeds 
and  reap  wheat;  and  neither  is  there  any  law 
whereby  a  man  may  violate  all  the  laws  of 
physical  health  and  then  by  a  few  prayers  have 
God  hand  him  health  as  the  grocer  hands  out 
a  package  of  breakfast  food. 

In  view  of  the  facts  stated,  it  is  evident  that 
God,  who  is  greater  than  sickness,  does  bring 
divine  healing  but  He  brings  it  through  the  laws 
of  life  which  control  both  body  and  mind.  But, 
since  the  mind  controls  the  body,  the  divine 
forces  of  life  operate  more  effectively  for  health 
through  the  mind  than  through  the  physical  or¬ 
ganism.  Faith  healing  is  both  scriptural  and 
psychological,  but  not  necessarily  miraculous. 
Faith,  in  general,  is  a  confident  mental  attitude 
toward  God,  man  or  the  certainty  of  the  laws 
of  life.  Faith  in  relation  to  divine  healing 


Mental  Attitude  and  Health  87 

is  an  attitude  of  mental  confidence  in  a  God 
who  is  greater  than  sickness  and  who  can  and 
will  heal  sickness. 

It  has  taken  the  world  a  long,  long  time  to 
realize  that  God  actually  made  the  human  body 
to  be  well  and  that  He  has  provided  for  recov¬ 
ery  from  sickness.  The  world  is  slower  still  to 
recognize  that  God  is  not  only  greater  than 
sickness  but  that  He  wants  people  to  be  well 
and  actually  heals  them.  The  majority  of  peo¬ 
ple  do  not  understand  that  the  human  body  is 
a  self-healing  and  self-recuperative  vital  or¬ 
ganism.  They  do  not  know  that  God  has 
placed  within  the  body  the  vital  forces  essen- 
,  tial  to  growth,  development,  repair  and  cure. 

Growing  out  of  the  conceptions  of  the  past 
centuries  which  created  a  God  in  harmony  with 
human  passions  and  human  vengeance,  multi¬ 
tudes  of  people  still  seem  to  have  a  fixed  men¬ 
tal  conception  that  God  is  chiefly  concerned  in 
destroying  the  human  race.  We  still  hear  min¬ 
isters  of  the  gospel  referring  to  God  as  having, 
in  His  providence,  taken  away  the  child  from 
its  mother’s  arms;  or  to  the  mother  whom  God 
has  taken  away  from  the  new-born  babe  which 
she  was  given  to  love  and  cherish.  Sometimes 


88  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

it  is  the  father,  the  head  and  support  of  the 
family,  that  God  in  His  wisdom  has  removed, 
leaving  the  widow  and  helpless  children  desti¬ 
tute.  For  the  fact  that  four-fifths  of  the  hu¬ 
man  race  do  not  live  out  the  full  span  of  nat¬ 
ural  life,  the  blame  is  laid  upon  God  as  though 
He  did  not  desire  nor  expect  the  race  which  He 
has  created  to  live  out  their  three-score  years 
and  ten.  Little  wonder  so  many  people  expect 
sickness  rather  than  health  and  death  rather 
than  life,  in  view  of  the  traditional  concep¬ 
tions  of  God  which  have  come  down  to  them. 

God  gave  human  life  to  be  lived  out  to  its 
full  span.  He  desires  man  to  live,  expects  him 
to  live  and,  humanly  speaking,  He  is  sorry 
when  any  one  dies  before  his  time.  While  it 
is  a  sad  truth  that  thousands  of  mothers  are 
taken  from  their  infant  children  at  their  birth, 
it  is  not  because  God  wants  any  mother  thus 
to  die.  God  made  mothers  for  children  and 
children  for  mothers,  and  He  wants  the  mothers 
to  live  and  rear  their  children  for  Him.  While 
child-birth  is  a  severe  physical  and  nervous  or¬ 
deal,  it  is  not  in  itself  the  cause  of  the  death 
of  one  mother  in  a  thousand.  Death  on  such 
occasions  is  usually  due  to  the  ignorance  or  in- 


Mental  Attitude  and  Health  89 

attention  of  the  attending  physician  or  nurse,  to 
the  lack  of  proper  sanitation  and  antiseptic 
care  which  results  in  septic  poisoning  and 
death. 

People  die  before  their  time  but  not  because 
God  wants  them  to  die  prematurely,  but  because 
of  their  ignorance  or  neglect  of  the  laws  of 
health  and  life.  The  God  of  love,  revealed  to 
us  in  Jesus  Christ,  desires  that  children  born 
into  this  world  shall  live,  expects  that  they  shall 
live  out  the  full  years;  and  the  chances  are  that 
they  will  thus  live  if  they  conform  to  the  laws 
of  life. 

Scores  of  examples  of  the  healing  of  sickness 
of  the  body  through  confident  mental  attitude 
might  be  cited  from  the  personal  experiences 
and  observations  of  the  writer,  but  we  purpose¬ 
ly  confine  ourselves  to  the  discussion  of  the 
principles  involved  and  the  application  of  the 
same. 

The  mental  antidote  for  ill  health  will  be 
found  in  an  abiding,  confident  attitude  of  mind 
that  God  has  made  the  human  body  to  be  well, 
in  an  unshaken  faith  that  God  has  provided 
for  recovery  from  sickness  through  the  vital, 
reparative  and  recuperative  forces  of  the  body, 


90  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

re-enforced  and  quickened  by  a  firm  will.  To 
these  must  be  added  the  firm  belief  that  God  is 
greater  than  sickness — any  sickness,  all  sick¬ 
ness,  your  sickness ;  and  that  all  healing  is  from 
Him  through  the  divine  forces  of  life  in  what¬ 
ever  way  He  may  be  pleased  to  direct  them. 

The  one  who  has  placed  his  life  absolutely 
at  the  disposal  of  God,  to  be  led  and  kept  by 
His  Spirit,  has  already  assumed  a  mental  atti¬ 
tude  that  is  an  antidote  for  sickness.  This 
does  not  necessarily  mean  that  such  a  one  will 
never  be  sick  as  a  result  of  disobedience  to  the 
laws  of  life,  but  it  does  mean  that  when  one 
has  thus  placed  his  life  at  God’s  disposal  he  is 
in  position  to  expect  and  to  claim  the  assistance 
of  all  the  divine  forces  of  life  for  his  recov¬ 
ery.  With  such  a  mental  attitude  one  can  con¬ 
fidently  hope  for  all  the  bodily  health  that  can 
possibly  come  to  him  through  the  medium  of 
the  mind  and  will.  And,  since  the  limit  to  which 
an  unshaken  confidence  can  go  in  overcoming 
disease  has  never  yet  been  determined,  let  no 
one  despair  as  long  as  the  vital  forces  of  life 
continue  to  operate. 


X 


MIND  AND  MASTERY 

We  are  told  in  the  first  chapter  of  the  book 
of  Genesis  that,  when  God  had  created  man,  He 
gave  him  to  have  dominion  over  every  living 
creature.  In  the  Eighth  Psalm  the  writer 
speaks  of  the  wonders  and  beauties  and  mar¬ 
velous  greatness  of  the  heavens  as  the  work 
of  God,  but  he  refers  to  these  only  to  empha¬ 
size  the  fact  that  man  is  still  greater,  “For 
thou  hast  made  him  a  little  lower  than  God 
(himself)  and  crownest  him  with  glory  and 
honor.  Thou  madest  him  to  have  dominion  ” 
As  wonderful  and  marvelous  as  are  the  heavens, 
man  is  still  more  wonderful  for  he  is  made 
in  the  image  of  God  and  but  little  lower  than 
God  himself.  That  is,  man  has  in  him  the 
Spirit  of  God,  only  man  is  finite  and  God  is 
infinite. 

Thus  we  see  that  man  was  made  for 


91 


I 


92  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

DOMINION  and  not  slavery.  He  was  cre¬ 
ated  to  rule  as  a  king  on  the  throne  of  his 
manhood  and  not  to  grovel  in  the  dust  to  his 
desires  and  appetites.  Woman  was  made  to 
rule  as  queen  in  the  realm  of  her  womanhood 
and  not  to  be  slave  and  paramour  to  man’s  de¬ 
sides.  Man  has  already  obtained  dominion 
over  the  earth,  sea  and  air  as  God  intended 
that  he  should.  He  is  already  master  of  the 
beasts  of  the  field,  the  fowls  of  the  air  and  the 
fishes  of  the  sea.  But,  sad  to  relate,  man  has 
not  yet  reached  the  higher  mastery  of  self. 
“He  that  ruleth  his  spirit  is  mightier  than  he 
that  taketh  a  city.”  With  all  his  mastery,  man 
has  not  yet  obtained  dominion  over  himself, 
over  his  appetites,  desires  and  passions. 

The  enormous  proportions  of  our  annual  to¬ 
bacco,  liquor  and  social  vice  bills  reveal  the 
sad  fact  that  men  are  still  slaves  instead  of 
rulers,  servants  instead  of  masters.  As  long 
as  mankind  are  willing  to  pay  more  for  their 
vices  than  for  their  virtues  they  can  not  justly 
claim  the  God-given  right  of  having  dominion 
over  themselves.  Every  jail  and  prison  house 
in  the  land  is  a  testimonial  to  the  fact  that 
men  are  not  masters  of  themselves,  hence  the 


Mind  and  Mastery  93 

necessity  of  the  restraining  hand  of  the  law 
and  prison  bars. 

On  a  recent  visit  to  our  old  home  town  we 
met  on  the  street  a  classmate  of  high  school 
days.  Cordial  greetings  were  exchanged. 
“How  are  you,  George?”  “Fine!”  “How 
are  you,  Tom?”  “All  right  but  for  tobacco.” 
“What  do  you  mean,  Tom?”  “Well,  I  can’t 
quit  chewing  tobacco.”  “Well,  Tom,  is  a  quid 
of  tobacco  bigger  than  you  are?”  “Well,  I 
guess  it  is;  I  can’t  quit.”  Think  of  it!  A  big, 
strapping,  six-footer  humbly  confessing  that  he 
was  a  slave  to  his  appetite  for  tobacco !  And 
what  shall  we  say  of  the  tens  of  thousands  of 
men  and  women  who  are  in  bondage  to  their 
appetites  for  alcohol,  opiates  and  social  vice? 
Man  has  fought  for  and  obtained  religious, 
civil  and  social  liberty  and  is  now  no  longer 
enslaved  to  any  man  or  potentate  as  his  mas¬ 
ter.  Man  would  even  now  rather  give  his  very 
life’s  blood  than  surrender  his  liberty  as  a  citi¬ 
zen.  Strange  indeed,  then,  that  he  should  tame¬ 
ly  yield  and  meekly  submit  to  be  ruled  by  his 
appetites,  desires  and  temper. 

The  foregoing  emphasizes  the  need  of  mas¬ 
tery;  and,  since  God  made  man  to  have  domin- 


94  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

ion,  it  is  our  purpose  to  emphasize  the  thought 
of  mastery  and  not  slavery.  Mastery  over 
self  is  possible  since  God  has  declared  that 
He  made  man  to  have  dominion.  God  has  ex¬ 
horted,  Let  not  sin  rule  in  your  mortal 
bodies.”  “Let  not  sin  have  dominion  over 
you.”  God  has  declared  that,  “He  that  com- 
mitteth  sin  is  the  servant  [slave]  of  sin.” 
“His  servants  [slaves]  ye  are  whom  ye  yield 
yourselves  servants  to  obey.”  God  has  prom¬ 
ised,  “Ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free.”  “If,  therefore,  the  Son 
shall  make  you  free  ye  shall  be  free  indeed.” 
The  possibility  of  man’s  dominion  and  mas¬ 
tery  of  himself  is  assured  so  far  as  God’s  de¬ 
sire  and  purpose  for  him  is  concerned. 

HOW  SHALL  MAN  OBTAIN  DOMINION? 

By  asserting  the  God-given  powers  of  the 
mind  over  the  body  for  mastery  of  appetites 
and  desires.  Man’s  thoughts  make  him  to  be 
either  a  master  of  his  appetites  and  disposi¬ 
tions  or  a  slave  to  them.  If  a  man  holds  that 
his  appetites  and  desires  were  given  him  simply 
for  the  sensual  enjoyment  he  can  get  out  of 


Mind  and  Mastery 


95 


them,  he  will  naturally  become  enslaved  by 
them.  If  man  holds  a  mental  conception  and 
attitude  that  his  appetites,  desires  and  disposi¬ 
tions  are  but  factors  in  the  fulfillment  of  the 
high  purposes  and  ends  for  which  he  was  cre¬ 
ated,  the  nourishment  of  his  body,  the  perpetua¬ 
tion  of  the  human  race  and  the  achievement 
of  God’s  plan  for  his  life,  he  will  become  a  king 
on  the  throne  of  his  manhood  instead  of  a 
subject  of  his  desires. 

Some  time  ago  a  prominent  citizen  inquired 
of  the  writer  as  to  whether  he  had  ever  smoked 
a  cigar  or  taken  a  drink  of  whiskey.  On  re¬ 
ceiving  a  negative  reply,  the  gentleman  ex¬ 
claimed,  “Ah,  you  don’t  know  what  real  pleas¬ 
ure  is !”  The  writer  had  the  privilege  of  tell¬ 
ing  him  that  he  found  much  higher  pleasure 
and  much  more  lasting  satisfaction  in  the  con¬ 
sciousness  that  he  was  the  master  of  his  ap¬ 
petites  instead  of  being  enslaved  to  them. 

There  is  a  wide  distinction  between  pleasure 
and  satisfaction.  Any  physical  or  mental  sen¬ 
sation  that  is  immediately  enjoyable  may  be 
termed  pleasure,  but  the  result  of  such  pleas¬ 
ure  may  be  far  from  being  satisfactory.  The 
primary  effects  of  alcohol,  when  the  brain  is 


9 6  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

in  its  first  stages  of  nervous  jingle,  may  be 
very  pleasant,  but  the  final  stages  of  a  drunken 
spree  are  anything  but  satisfactory. 

Man  can  obtain  dominion  by  asserting  the 
God-given  powers  of  his  mind  for  the  control 
and  direction  of  his  appetites  and  desires  to 
the  ends  and  purposes  for  which  they  were  cre¬ 
ated.  Men  do  not  need  to  pray  to  the  Devil 
for  help  to  commit  sin,  to  violate  the  laws  of 
life,  they  simply  give  free  rein  to  the  indul¬ 
gence  of  their  appetites  and  soon  find  them¬ 
selves  in  bondage  to  their  desires.  Men  do 
not  need  to  pray  to  God  for  help  to  do  what 
He  wants  done  and  has  already  equipped  them 
with  all  the  divine  forces  of  life  to  accom¬ 
plish. 

How  did  Edison,  Bell,  Wright,  Marconi,  ob¬ 
tain  dominion  over  the  forces  of  nature  ?  They 
obtained  the  mastery  by  utilizing  the  forces  of 
the  mind  with  which  they  were  endowed.  They 
recognized  that  the  power  for  mastery  lay  in 
the  human  mind  and  will,  and  they  set  them¬ 
selves  diligently  and  resolutely  to  achieve  the 
dominion  which  God  had  already  given  them 
in  embryo.  The  men  of  history  who  have  ob¬ 
tained  mastery  over  the  soil,  seas  and  sky  are 


Mind  and  Mastery 


97 


the  men  who  felt  that  they  were  made  for 
mastery  and  hence  emphasized  those  factors 
and  forces  which  made  for  dominion. 

If  man  would  have  mastery  over  the  forces 
of  nature  he  must  study  the  laws  of  nature; 
and  if  he  would  have  dominion  over  his  own 
appetites  and  desires  he  must  also  study  the 
laws  of  such  dominion.  If  a  man  permits  his 
mind  to  dwell  upon  the  pleasures  of  the  grati¬ 
fication  of  his  appetites  and  rolls  the  thought 
of  sensual  indulgence,  as  it  were,  a  sweet  mor¬ 
sel  under  his  tongue,  he  will  ultimately  become 
enslaved  to  his  appetites,  no  matter  what  form 
the  indulgence  may  take. 

Although  enslaved  to  intemperate  indulgence 
because  of  his  wrong  mental  attitude,  man  may 
obtain  freedom  and  mastery  by  right  mental 
emphasis.  He  can  say  to  himself,  “I  am  a 
man,  made  in  the  image  of  God  for  dominion, 
and  I  refuse  to  remain  a  slave  to  sin.”  He  can 
come  to  realize  that  slavery  is  abnormal  and 
that  mastery  is  natural;  and  that  in  his  higher 
mental  and  moral  nature  he  does  not  desire  to 
gratify  appetite  merely  for  the  sake  of  the 
sensual  pleasure.  If  he  is  a  drunkard  he  can 
say  to  himself,  “I  do  not  want  to  drink  liquor,” 


98  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

which  is  true  of  his  higher  self.  He  can  re¬ 
peat  the  assertion  many  times  a  day.  He  can 
soon  go  farther  and  say,  “I  will  not  drink 
liquor,”  and  keep  asserting  that  resolve  and  in 
a  short  time  he  will  find  that  he  has  the  mas¬ 
tery.  For,  whatever  may  be  said,  unworthy 
appetites  are  not  so  much  the  real  demands 
of  the  flesh  as  they  are  mental  habits.  The 
quickest  and  surest  cure  for  intemperate  in¬ 
dulgence  of  any  sort  is  that  mental  attitude 
and  mental  habit  which  assures  oneself  that 
such  indulgence  is  neither  necessary  nor  desired. 
What  man  indeed  is  so  low  that,  figuratively 
speaking,  he  can  look  up  into  the  face  of  the 
God  who  created  him  in  His  own  image  and 
made  him  to  have  DOMINION  and  say  to 
God,  “Drunkenness  and  social  vice  are  a  neces¬ 
sity”? 

Men  who  have  dominion  are  those  who  eat 
and  drink  for  the  nourishment  of  the  body.  It 
is  the  eating  and  drinking  for  the  pleasures  of 
the  palate,  for  the  kick  and  jingle  that  alcohol 
puts  into  the  brain  that  makes  men  gluttons, 
drunkards  and  slaves  to  their  appetites.  Such 
slavery  is  intensified  by  a  false  conception  that 
the  abnormal  gratification  of  his  animal  in- 


Mind  and  Mastery 


99 


stincts  in  some  way  benefits  him.  Then,  such 
a  man  always  places  more  emphasis  upon  the 
temporary  pleasures  of  sense  than  upon  the 
higher  and  more  lasting  satisfaction  that  comes 
from  the  accomplishments  of  the  high  ends 
and  purposes  of  life. 

THE  SUPREME  INCENTIVE  FOR  MASTERY 

The  realization  that  “God  made  man  for 
dominion”  is  the  highest  inspiration  and  great¬ 
est  incentive  for  man  to  live  in  mastery  of 
all  his  appetites,  desires  and  passions.  “He 
that  ruleth  his  temper  is  mightier  than  he  that 
taketh  a  city.”  The  greatest  victory  in  the 
world  is  self-mastery.  In  his  book,  “The  Shep¬ 
herd  of  the  Hills,”  the  author  puts  into  the 
lips  of  his  hero,  Grant  Matthews,  these  words, 
“No  man  needn’t  be  afraid  of  nobody  but 
himself.”  When  man  has  mastered  himself 
he  can  master  anything  that  God  wants  him 
to  master. 

While  happiness,  poise,  health  and  success 
are  important,  self-mastery,  the  dominion  of 
the  mind  over  one’s  own  appetites,  desires  and 
disposition  is  the  crowning  satisfaction  of  life. 


ioo  Mental  Antidotes  for  Many  Ills 

Dominion  puts  the  real  man  on  top  and  the 
animal  in  subjection.  Instead  of  being  en¬ 
slaved  by  his  appetites  and  desires  and  all  the 
time  working  for  them,  the  man  who  is  king 
on  the  throne  of  his  manhood  holds  his  appe¬ 
tites,  desires  and  passions  in  subjection  and 
compels  them  to  serve  him. 

In  his  first  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  chapter 
9:27,  Paul  says,  “I  strive  to  keep  my  body 
under.”  On  a  certain  Sunday  a  little  girl  was 
sent  to  church,  unaccompanied  by  her  parents. 
When  she  returned,  she  was  requested  to  re¬ 
peat  the  minister’s  text.  She  was  unable  to  re¬ 
call  the  exact  language.  Her  parents  insisted 
and  she  finally  reported  the  minister  as  saying, 
“I  strive  to  keep  my  soul  on  top.”  While 
these  words  are  not  an  exact  quotation  of  the 
words  of  the  apostle,  they  furnish  the  best 
interpretation  and  application  of  this  text  we 
have  ever  heard.  The  man  who  is  seeking  the 
mastery  is  always  striving  to  keep  his  soul  on 
top  and  his  body  under. 

The  mind  can  master  and  control  the  body. 
God  has  made  this  possible  by  making  the 
mind  supreme  and  the  body  subordinate. 
Man’s  mind,  the  expression  of  the  soul,  was 


Mind  and  Mastery  101 

created  by  his  Maker  to  be  kept  on  top;  and 
only  when  man  voluntarily  surrenders  his  will 
to  the  control  of  his  desires  and  appetites  does 
he  lose  his  mastery  and  dominion.  Bearing  in 
mind  the  scripture,  “God  made  man  to  have 
dominion,”  let  us  accommodate  it  and  appro¬ 
priate  it  to  ourselves  by  repeating  often,  “God 
gave  me  to  have  dominion”;  and  this  truth, 
under  such  mental  emphasis,  will  go  far  to¬ 
ward  giving  our  minds  the  mastery  over  our 
problems  of  life  and  also  over  our  appetites, 
desires  and  dispositions. 


. 


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